In advancing public policy, you expect the person who holds the moral high ground to win. The battle is who’s able to conquer that high ground and keep it. Unfortunately, the moral high ground is often a matter of perspective, and the political right has been cast far too readily as the villain by over-simplified, bumper-sticker narratives in the media. However, those bumper stickers will soon be covered to up to feature a new villain: New York’s governor Andrew Cuomo.
Normally, the left wins the high ground by saying the government should intervene to protect some unprotected group and anyone standing in the way is the bad guy. For the sake of simplicity let’s call this a David and Goliath narrative—and everyone always wants to see David win.
The problem is that intervention, while it might make people feel good about the issue du jour, frequently makes the situation worse for most. But it’s a difficult position for the right to be in – because proving that the “feel good” solution is a road to serfdom is an uphill battle.
So the left is very accustomed to enjoying the moral high ground … so much so that they sometimes don’t even notice when they’ve completely abandoned it.
Such is the case with climate change, with high-handed proclamations of “when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal” that enter the realm of religious delusions of grandeur – and that has led to problems.
Let’s take the current climate policy that Gov. Andrew Cuomo is supporting in New York—which amounts to stealing from the poor to line the pockets of his crony friends. Governor Cuomo has just exposed the left’s moral failure- the fact that much of the left’s goal in making climate policy into a political debate that they can use to benefit their friends.
Of course the left’s primary policy goal is always funneling money to their friends, but they are usually better at concealing it. Not in New York: A panel created by Cuomo’s with the public intention of attempting to move New York toward using 50 percent renewable energy by 2030 just exposed the truth. While 50 percent by 2030 is a laudable goal (pie-in-the-sky goals for the distant future are great for building moral high ground), but one of the panel’s main proposals is to steal from the poor to give to the Democrats’ friends.
The New York Public Service Commission (PSC) approved a statewide Clean Energy Standard (CES) on August 1st. As mentioned above, the CES mandates that the state gets 50% of its energy from carbon-neutral sources by 2030. However, their proposal also includes Zero Emission Credits (ZECs). The credit will be used to take money from energy consumers and send money to the owners of the nuclear power plants in upstate New York beginning in April of 2017.
In the first two years alone the credit will take $965 million in one of the most regressive ways possible: increased energy fees.
Cuomo’s overreach is a public policy debate gift, completely surrendering the moral high ground back to Republicans. He is robbing from the poor to give to the rich. As Phil Kerpen, American Commitment points out,
The publicly stated goal of Cuomo’s panel is well intentioned—although being pushed under questionable circumstances and opposed by people on the right and left. Maybe the left has forgotten why they’ve won so much of the moral high ground, because their friends at The Daily Show and elsewhere won’t hold them accountable. Between pushing policies solely intended to send money to their friends and policies that take money from the poor to give to the rich, the arrogant left is positioned to lose badly – and their constituents will pay for it.
Cuomo should delay, stop, and refuse to implement this new tax on the poor and the right should hold him accountable for it—while also retaking the moral high ground.
Charles Sauer is president of the Market Institute.
