If any self-help gurus are reading this, you might want to micro-target the New York governor’s mansion for your next marketing push. Gov. Andrew Cuomo might need some cheering up.
Last year, the New York Public Service Commission, a panel appointed by Cuomo, published what should have been the energy policy centerpiece to help propel the liberal candidate to the forefront of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary. (Lord knows the Dems need the help these days.) However, the proposal contained several crony-capitalist provisions that have completely undermined both the energy plan and Cuomo’s credibility.
The proposal from the PSC attempted to put New York on a path to getting 50 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2030. I have said before and I will say it again: this is a commendable goal. It might be a fairytale or it might be easily reachable, but the goal is good. The devil is in the details, however, and the PSC has enough details for Lucifer to buy a summer home and open his own deli.
The PSC’s proposal includes a fee that New Yorkers would have to pay of nearly $1 billion over the first two years to subsidize nuclear power – which isn’t a form of renewable energy. Therefore, the only funding in the bill wasn’t going toward the goal of 50 percent renewable usage, but rather Cuomo’s buddies.
The worst part for Cuomo is that the error was so bad, so egregious, and so transparent in its crony intent that the plan’s initial opposition is gaining steam over the past year. They’re energized (and don’t worry, they’ll get 50 percent of their energy from renewables.) First, groups on the Right spoke out with studies, op-eds, and letters. Then groups on the Left spoke out and even created a website: Stop the Cuomo Tax.
Now, finally, members of the New York legislature are starting to put pressure on the governor to abandon his plan too. Last month Republican State Senators Elaine Phillips and Carl Marcellino both sent letters to Cuomo expressing their opposition.
And, just this week a new plan, championed by New York’s Republican Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, has emerged that amends the PSC’s plan in an interesting way. The bill strips funding from other energy projects to fund the governor’s plan. The key language in the bill:
Lastly, the bill would require NYSERDA [New York State Energy Research and Development] to fund the program out of existing funding streams, while preventing them from increasing additional fees, rentals, penalties, or other charges authorized and in existence prior to the effective date of this title.
In other words, Flanagan is proposing that the governor can have his cake (payments to upstate nuclear power plants), but he can’t eat it – by creating a new tax/fee to pay for it.
This isn’t the way that I would prefer the problem be solved. Flanagan is proposing that funding be taken away from research and development programs and put into the pockets of business owners. However, it makes the trade-offs of the Governor’s plan clearer and is therefore a gigantic step in the right direction.
Politics isn’t always perfect, but watching the Republicans coalesce in opposition to the governor’s plan is giving me hope. Maybe when the self-help gurus start knocking on Cuomo’s door, they can still convince him to think that he is a good person, a strong person, and – even though his energy plan is falling apart – he can hold himself together.
Charles Sauer (@CharlesSauer) is a contributer to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is president of the Market Institute and previously worked on Capitol Hill, for a governor and for an academic think tank.
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