Carl Campanile: “So much for that green new spiel. Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration — facing the heat over Con Edison’s proposed double-digit gas and electric hikes— is stepping up gas production that flies in the face of New York’s controversial green energy law. The administration approved permits to expand the capacity of the 414-mile Iroquois pipeline and pump more natural gas into New York City and southern Connecticut in a move to maintain adequate supply during the coldest days of the year — and avoid freezeouts.” --NY Post, Published Feb. 16, 2025, 5:11 p.m. ET *
“Reality’s a b——h,” isn’t it? More appropriately, reality is often a wake up call. And Governor Kathy Hochul might just now have heard that call. But maybe not.
The expansion of the Iroquois carrying capacity by increasing pumping capacity is attached to a $5 million requirement to mitigate emissions and add EV charging stations. The fear off global warming—sorry, climate change—still motivates the Hochul administration, that persistent current winter cold notwithstanding.
Are There No Creative Thinkers in NY?
Have you noticed that the current cadre of greenies and green elected officials can’t think laterally? That any acquiescence to reality is reluctant and comes with attachment to previous perspectives?
As one who did a study on green technologies for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and who wrote a mitigation policy for the now defunct PA Energy Office, I realize that like the wheels of justice, the perspectives of government officials grind slowly. Once onto a view, they hold it because it becomes livelihood supported by offices, office supplies, staff, reports, and lavish government grants. NY is no exception.
People are cold in a state that banned fracking yet uses fracked natural gas from Canada. Does the word absurd come to mind? And then, “more than absurd” if one thinks of lost sales of LNG to Europe and piped gas to other states with all the attendant jobs. NY’s estimated gas reserves exceed one trillion cubic feet. Ideology is a bummer.
Edward de Bono wrote The Use of Lateral Thinking in 1967, followed by Lateral Thinking: Creativity Step by Step. His term lateral thinking has become so much a part of western culture that it can be found in the Oxford English Dictionary. Someone in the Hochul administration should read his books. NY needs some lateral thinking.
Here are some steps the administration could use as it oversees NY’s energy sector:
1) Challenge assumptions. The assumed threat of climate change and global warming might not be as serious as Hochul thinks. In fact, for a state that has been in the temperate current Interglacial, the future might lie in a Younger Dryas type of cooling. And the assumption of global warming might not actually have legitimate data supporting it, first because the modern records go back only less than two centuries and second, because much of the current data is extrapolated from a paucity of weather stations (numerous older stations having been abandoned and some spread widely in areas of sparse populations as on the continents of Africa, South America, and Australia).
2) Reverse thinking. The use and distribution of resources in NY follow a pattern established long before modern technology.What would happen if NY rethought its energy sector in light of modern technology and artificial intelligence. Could $5 million for charging stations and mitigation studies obviate the need for mitigation if it were spent on AI energy controls?
3) Suspended judgment. Under Cuomo, Hochul’s predecessor, NY banned fracking. The policy was adopted relatively quickly. Is it now time to step back to reconsider a decision to lock up a trillion cubic feet of gas?
De Bono has other mechanisms to enhance lateral thinking that might serve NY’s energy officials as they deal with winter cold and summer heat. But in addition to reading his books, Hochul’s crew could ask themselves if the current policy isn’t just a response to and satisfaction of climate alarmists’ shrill demands for a carbon-free NY.
What happens to New Yorkers if the weather runs persistently colder as it did during the Little Ice Age? What happens to the energy grid if NY achieves its goal of all EVs by 2035? We have already seen California’s request for EV owners not to charge their cars during brownouts. Will New Yorkers be happy with such restrictions?
NY definitely needs some lateral thinking; or better, rethinking.
*https://nypost.com/2025/02/16/us-news/kathy-hochul-steps-on-the-gas-amid-con-edison-rate-hike-furor/
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