New York "Climate" Policy Approaching The Cliff

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New York "Climate" Policy Approaching The Cliff

  • For a few years now, it has been blindingly obvious that New York had over-promised and over-committed on impossible “climate” goals that could not be achieved. In various posts I have referred to this as an approaching “cliff,” or perhaps as the “green energy wall.” It has been entertaining to ponder what the final disaster might look like.

  • This week has had a lot of developments. Most interesting is the growing split among the governing Democrats between, on the one hand, those who see disaster coming and are looking for some kind of graceful exit and, on the other hand, those pushing full speed ahead to go over the cliff.

  • It may already be too late for New York to have any graceful exit from its self-inflicted predicament. Nevertheless, my official position is that I am advocating for New York to take the most graceful possible exit while it still can. But I have to admit that secretly I am hoping for the most aggressive advocates to get their way and take New York over the cliff. Hey, I’ll wait out the blackouts somewhere else, and maybe a critical mass of the voters will finally wake up.

  • So let me just give you some straight reporting on the latest developments.

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Under What Theory Should Iran Be Immune From Lethal Response To Its Actions?

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  • In today’s world, there are 193 countries in the UN. The large majority of those countries will vote consistently against the United States on measures that come before the General Assembly.

  • Then again, the international system that counts is not the UN, but rather the U.S.-led commercial and legal order of alliances and trade. Almost all of the 193 UN member countries participate willingly in that system, to their great benefit. They may oppose the U.S. on many issues, and they may have disputes with their immediate neighbors, but they don’t make themselves constant troublemakers threatening to disrupt world peace and international trade.

  • And then there is that small number of countries that are engaged in some kind of continuous arms-supported opposition to the dominant U.S.-led order. Out of the 193 countries in the UN, recently that group has consisted of a cohort of six: China and Russia as the big two, plus the likes of Iran, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea. Each of these countries has taken its own approach to trying to resist and disrupt the U.S.-led international order.

  • But even among this group of rogue states, Iran has long stood out as the one state actor that engages in frequent and lethal armed attacks against other countries that are not at war with it and have not attacked it.

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Why Government Can't Solve All Human Problems: A Health Care Example

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  • Here’s something nearly everyone can agree on: healthcare in the United States is too expensive. Private health insurance premiums rise inexorably well above the rate of inflation, and so do the costs of government subsidized healthcare like Medicare and Medicaid. And if you face a big medical issue without insurance, the bills could well come to more than you could ever pay.

  • So what’s the answer? To the Left, it’s easy: a “single payer” system, sometimes called “Medicare for all.” In simple terms, the federal government pays for all the medical expenses of everybody. The money comes out of the infinite pile of federal loot. No individual ever has to worry about a medical bill. Prominent backers of the “single payer”solution to healthcare costs include the likes of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, as well as organizations like Physicians for a National Health Program.

  • The flaw in this approach is something that is not intuitive to most people.

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Cuba Becomes The First Country To Reach Net Zero. Shouldn't We Be Celebrating?

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Cuba Becomes The First Country To Reach Net Zero. Shouldn't We Be Celebrating?

  • There it was on the front page of Saturday’s New York Times: with a small assist from the United States, the island nation of Cuba has almost entirely ended the use of fossil fuels. Finally, we have the first country in the world to achieve the climate movement’s Holy Grail and nirvana — Net Zero! Or at least a very close approximation.

  • This should be cause for a huge celebration.

  • You would think that the Times, which has been demanding the elimination of fossil fuels for at least a couple of decades, would be leading the celebrations. But weirdly, now that Cuba has finally shown the way, the Times chooses to put a completely different spin on the achievement. The headline and subheadline are (print edition): “U.S. Choking Oil Deliveries To Cuba Ports; Military Action Brings a Nation to Its Knees.”

  • The piece reports that the Trump administration is helping Cuba to achieve Net Zero by preventing oil tankers from landing there. Somehow in this piece, that is spun as a bad thing. It has brought Cuba “to its knees.”

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Mayor Mamdani Declares That New York Has A "Budget Crisis"

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  • One of the first tasks that a new Mayor has in New York City after taking office is to present a budget. Given that an annual New York City budget is well north of $100 billion, you would think that this is a serious undertaking. But our new Mayor is the 34-year-old play-acting college socialist Zohran Mamdani. How does he handle the task?

  • Mamdani kicked the process of with a press conference at City Hall on January 28. Here is a transcript and video of his remarks. Excerpt:

  • I want to speak directly to New Yorkers, who have for too long been misled and misinformed about the true state of our City's finances. I will be blunt: New York City is facing a serious fiscal crisis. There is a massive fiscal deficit in our City's budget to the tune of at least $12 billion. We did not arrive at this place by accident. This crisis has a name and a chief architect. In the words of the Jackson 5, it's as easy as A-B-C. This is the Adams Budget Crisis.

  • Yes, there is a “serious fiscal crisis,” featuring a looming deficit of some $12 billion, all of which is entirely the fault of our prior Mayor (Eric Adams). And what is the underlying cause of this “crisis”?

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End Of The Endangerment Finding: Will "Net Zero" Ever Get Back On Track In The U.S.?

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  • This morning, EPA released the official Federal Register version of its Rescission of the Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding as to motor vehicles. The Federal Register cite is 91 F.R. 7686. This official version of the Rescission, in printed, single-spaced and triple column format, is only 111 pages, versus the 436 pages the previous preliminary version; however, the text appears to be substantially unchanged.

  • It only took literal minutes for the first lawsuit challenging the Rescission to get filed. Here, via the website of the Union of Concerned Scientists, is a copy of a Petition that they say was filed today on behalf of a large group of environmental and “health” organizations.

  • Without doubt, among this large group of Petitioners and others in the climate and environmental Left, many people have been working feverishly to come up with the magic litigation strategy to get their beloved Endangerment Finding reinstated and then, they hope, to get their government-mandated national “net zero” energy transformation back on track.

  • But is there any litigation strategy that can actually accomplish those goals?

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