Kathy Hochuls ambition cancels out claims of coming climate disaster

New York politicians are extremely worried about the threat of global climate change.Their only bigger worry is that the voters will learn what they plan to do about it.More than one year past Albany’s self-imposed deadline to make rules for major greenhouse-gas cuts, Gov.

Kathy Hochul and the state Legislature used the annual budget to yet again hit the snooze button on a top climate initiative.This time, the governor paused a law requiring school districts to buy electric schoolbuses for their fleets. It joins Hochul’s growing list of delays on climate initiatives that would cause New Yorkers pain — consequences she does not want voters to feel until her next term.The list of deferments includes a tax-like “cap-and-invest” carbon-mitigation scheme, collecting billions from fossil-fuel producers in a “Climate Superfund” and rules mandating zero-emission truck sales in the Empire State.The zero-emission schoolbus mandate makes school districts the canaries in the green-economy coal mine.Under the law, no fossil-fueled school buses may be on the roads starting in 2035.That means school districts, many of which operate under 10-year replacement schedules, should be buying zero-emission electric schoolbuses now. But the high cost of electric buses — more than double the average price of gas- or diesel-fueled models — has made those purchases a budgetary impossibility for many districts.Absent substantial federal and state subsidies, today’s electric schoolbuses can’t compete economically with fossil-fueled ones.The governor’s legal tweak shows the rubber is meeting the road on the electric-schoolbus mandate, as policy makers cave to reality and political pressure. The same is true for other green initiatives. The Empire State’s 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act set some incredible goals, including cutting statewide carbon emissions by about a quarter by 2030.Every morning, the NY POSTcast offers a deep dive into the...