Blue States Set To Roll Back Expensive New Climate-Centered Energy Initiative as Rising Costs Start To Bite Taxpayers

With Iran’s blockade in the Strait of Hormuz capturing headlines about rising oil prices, regulators in a number of states are scaling back climate-related energy regulations, faulting housing costs and the Trump administration’s rollback of funding for clean energy projects for a shortage in fossil fuel alternatives.Even as several states introduce legislation requiring new climate change rules, New York’s governor Kathy Hochul is the latest chief executive to say she wants to put the brakes on clean energy emission mandates. Instead, she is asking legislators to amend the 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act to delay the 2030 deadline for capping certain pollution levels and charging corporations for exceeding emissions limits, and modify other targets set all the way out to 2050. “This is solely out of necessity — to protect New Yorkers’ pocketbooks and economy,” Ms. Hochul wrote in a piece published Friday by Empire Report. “With energy demand growing and the state having retired far more fossil fuel plants than it’s been able to replace with renewable sources, our electric system operator is projecting potential energy shortages, particularly downstate, that could lead to brownouts and blackouts,” she said. “Put simply, something has to give.”Citing her clean energy record, Ms. Hochul said that during her administration the state and investors have dropped more than $88 billion into wind and solar energy projects, including offshore wind farms that President Trump halted by executive order issued nationwide last year. That stoppage, along with what Ms. Hochul described as “post-Covid inflation and supply chain disruptions,” has put the price of implementing the law’s restrictions too high for most New Yorkers. According to the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, under the new rules, it would cost the average upstate household that uses oil and natural gas to heat their homes $4,000 more per year while New York City residents would be forced to pay $2,300 more per year on average. Gas prices at the pump would also increase an additional $2.23 per gallon were the law to go into effect as scheduled.“As Governor, I can’t let that happen,” she wrote. Large corporate groups like trucking and restaurant associations have protested the rules, saying they can’t afford to operate under strict climate-change rules, and several reports show that older residents are increasingly behind on their utility bill payments. The state’s supreme court had already ruled that New York must proceed with its climate change targets, hence the request from the governor for the legislature to take action. But environmental activists have called Ms. Hochul’s request a betrayal, and a group of 29 state lawmakers say they “categorically oppose” any effort to pass legislation to halt the rollout. They argue that the Energy Research and Development Authority affordability paper cited by the governor uses a flawed cap and investment program design without “price guardrails.” New York’s clean energy problems are not isolated. Despite attorneys general from several Democratic-led states challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s recent rollback of greenhouse gas emissions rules, with major housing shortages and rising manufacturing costs for clean-energy appliances, states that would normally champion energy efficiency regulations are grappling with unmanageable mandates. In California, where refineries are bailing, the state’s Air Resources Board has delayed until May issuing its final greenhouse gas disclosure rules by corporations doing more than $1 billion in business, including home builders, following a wave of public comment. After a Ninth Circuit Court injunction, the board announced it will not fine violators of a January 1, 2026, deadline to report climate risks emerging from doing business in the state.In Vermont, legislators last month effectively killed the state’s Clean Heat Standard by not overriding a veto by Governor Phil Scott to a 2024 bill that would have created a credit marketplace for homeowners to buy clean fuel. That led regulators to end rulemaking and close the initiative. Massachusetts delayed a similar requirement until at least 2028, citing the need to evaluate access to clean fuels and affordability of new heat pumps by homeowners.A February report by think tank E2 Energy+Environment found that for every dollar of new investment in clean energy in 2025, companies killed three dollars’ worth of projects, valued at roughly $34.8 billion, and 38,000 projects. Most are in Republican-led states, which voluntarily abandoned clean energy goals following the Trump administration’s elimination of federal requirements.Nonetheless, the Trump administration has shown support for some alternative energy investments, including geothermal, with the Department of Energy last month announcing $171 million in new funding for field tests on public lands. A white paper from an independent think tank, Center for Public Enterprise, says new permitting rules could reduce production times for getting geothermal sources online by up to 75 percent.As states grapple with the housing shortage and a strain on utility grids from growing demand, particularly by AI data centers, some localities are pushing forward with rules to reduce emissions that could further strain the housing market. The county council in Thurston County, Washington, for example, approved a rule last week that would require homeowners to obtain a “home energy score” — at a cost to the homeowner of up to $350 — before putting their properties on the market.

Blue States Set To Roll Back Expensive New Climate-Centered Energy Initiative as Rising Costs Start To Bite Taxpayers

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