By Ken Girardin June 20, 2019 | New York Post

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he wanted New York to adopt a limit on greenhouse gas emissions that’s “the most aggressive goal in the country.” Unfortunately for New Yorkers, state lawmakers took him at his word.

The Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act now awaiting his signature vastly expands the state’s power to regulate every corner of New York’s economy in pursuit of lower emissions. Yet sponsors didn’t even bother to estimate its fiscal and economic impacts before rushing it through.

The bill gives the Department of Environmental Conservation extraordinary powers over all emissions sources — farms, factories, offices and even the furnaces in single-family homes. And it empowers every state agency to weigh emissions “in considering and issuing permits, licenses, and other administrative approvals and decisions.”

The Public Service Commission, which regulates electric utilities, will “require the procurement” of substantial amounts of new renewables and energy storage capacity. This means the commission will mostly force utilities and large electric customers to buy renewable energy credits to symbolize the purchase of renewables or pay penalties to the state.

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