Big promises, poor planning and now northeastern U.S. residents get stuck with the bill.

Several years ago, in a burst of climate optimism, Democratic-led states across the Northeast adopted some of the world’s most ambitious policies to shift away from fossil fuels and cut planet-warming emissions.

But today, many of those states are scaling back or rethinking their climate plans as they miss emissions targets, struggle with soaring electricity bills and confront the Trump administration’s hostility to renewable energy.

In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul recently said the state’s goal for deeply cutting emissions by 2030 was now “unattainable” and asked the legislature to rework its landmark climate law. Regulators had been discussing fees on polluters to help meet that goal, but Ms. Hochul said the costs passed onto consumers would be too high.

In Massachusetts, lawmakers are eyeing cuts to a program that adds charges to utility bills to fund heat pumps and efficiency upgrades, while Gov. Maura Healey has pursued a flurry of energy policy changes to address affordability.

In Rhode Island, Gov. Dan McKee has proposed delaying a legal deadline for the state to get all of its electricity from renewables, from 2033 to 2050, claiming that the current mandate would impose steep near-term costs.

The Democrat governors of these states hope to regulate their way to lower emissions while keeping costs down. Not surprisingly, it didn’t turn out that way and environmentalists are vehemently against any changes to state climate policies. They’re likely wealthy urban liberals who don’t have to pay any price for what they advocate.

Environmentalists have opposed many of these changes, arguing that expensive natural gas is the biggest reason for high energy prices in the region, and the quicker utilities can get off gas, the better. That means doubling down on efficiency and conservation measures, solar power and batteries while investing less in extending gas pipelines to new homes, they say.

“We could cut all these clean energy programs now and save a little on bills, but we’re still going to be in a constant cycle of natural gas costs going up unless we figure out how to break the cycle,” said Mr. Murray of Acadia Center.

While it is good that the governors in question are embracing nuclear power, it may be too little too late. Utility bills will continue to go up until and unless they undo all of the proposals they enacted. Anything else, is merely window dressing.