On Friday, I wrote about how New York under governor Cuomo was focusing on raising the tax burden of the extremely wealthy who currently live in the state and the likely loss of state revenue if the high taxes drive even a small percentage of these individuals to other states. Today, there's another bit of news that focuses on the destruction of the NY economy by Cuomo and the Democrats. The news may not sound like much. Con Ed, the local electric and natural gas utility, notified state regulators on Friday that as of March 15 it will no longer accept new customers in Westchester County, the biggest suburban county north of New York City. Another gas provider National Grid has made similar announcements. Reports say that Con Ed will shortly cut off new customers in New York City itself. The reason given by Con Ed for stopping new hook ups for natural gas is "lack of supply."
Think about this for a moment. How can there be a lack of supply. The biggest natural gas field in the world is in Pennsylvania. There's an enormous tidal wave of gas coming out of the ground in an adjoining state, but New York doesn't have enough gas for new hook ups. There's so much gas being produced right next to New York that much of it is being shipped overseas and the infrastructure for such exports is growing by a huge percentage each year. Gas prices are low. Clearly, there is gas coming out of the ground in a quantity that could easily cover new customers in New York. So I say again, how can there be a lack of supply? The answer is not a shortage of gas, but rather a shortage of pipelines to carry the natural gas to customers.
Cuomo has been in office for long time. During that time, he has tried to discourage the use of natural gas for supposed environmental reasons. Each time a natural gas supplier has tried to build a new pipeline to supply gas across the state, the Cuomo administration has done all it could to stop construction. Pipeline applications have been denied for some rather bizarre reasons. The only pipelines that get built are those for which the utility goes to court and fights for years to get an order releasing the permit. That's very expensive and also very risky. A company could easily fight all the way to the state's highest court only to lose after spending tens of millions. The result is that essentially no new pipelines have been built. Over the last eight years, the amount of gas used in New York has risen, though, to the point at which the entire supply carried by pipelines is now about used up.
Strangely, at the same time that Cuomo has discouraged any new gas supply, he has worked to greatly increase the demand. Cuomo has put the Indian Point nuclear plant on the course to total shutdown. That plant supplied on third of the electricity used in the New York City region in NY. Cuomo also put in place regulations that made oil and coal fired electric plants uneconomical. These moves gave a great push to the construction of new natural gas fired generating plants. That used up a chunk of supply. Cuomo talks about how wind and solar power can fill the gap, but that's a pipedream that cannot be realized. So the result of Cuomo's policies is a shortage of gas with a resulting shutdown of new customers.
Now consider what the lack of natural gas for new customers means. If you want to build new homes in the region, your choice for a heating system has just been limited to electric. You could use a fuel pump, but that still needs an auxiliary source for heating. Electric heat is much more expensive than natural gas heating, so it will push the ability to own a home beyond the means of many people.
If you want to relocate a business to New York, you will also be out of luck if you need a natural gas supply. Sure, those who work in offices may not be affected immediately, but those companies that run factories or even warehouses may quickly find that they can't get the fuel they need to heat and power their installations. A factory might well locate in Pennsylvania rather than New York just because of the problems in the NY natural gas supply system. This won't affect every new company, but if it cuts those coming to NY by even 20%, it will make a big dent in the growth of the region.
Cuomo and his "green" policies are actually doing nothing more than damaging the economy in New York. It's a sad thing to watch as the misguided progressive religion of Climate Change results in the sacrifice of the NY economy.
Think about this for a moment. How can there be a lack of supply. The biggest natural gas field in the world is in Pennsylvania. There's an enormous tidal wave of gas coming out of the ground in an adjoining state, but New York doesn't have enough gas for new hook ups. There's so much gas being produced right next to New York that much of it is being shipped overseas and the infrastructure for such exports is growing by a huge percentage each year. Gas prices are low. Clearly, there is gas coming out of the ground in a quantity that could easily cover new customers in New York. So I say again, how can there be a lack of supply? The answer is not a shortage of gas, but rather a shortage of pipelines to carry the natural gas to customers.
Cuomo has been in office for long time. During that time, he has tried to discourage the use of natural gas for supposed environmental reasons. Each time a natural gas supplier has tried to build a new pipeline to supply gas across the state, the Cuomo administration has done all it could to stop construction. Pipeline applications have been denied for some rather bizarre reasons. The only pipelines that get built are those for which the utility goes to court and fights for years to get an order releasing the permit. That's very expensive and also very risky. A company could easily fight all the way to the state's highest court only to lose after spending tens of millions. The result is that essentially no new pipelines have been built. Over the last eight years, the amount of gas used in New York has risen, though, to the point at which the entire supply carried by pipelines is now about used up.
Strangely, at the same time that Cuomo has discouraged any new gas supply, he has worked to greatly increase the demand. Cuomo has put the Indian Point nuclear plant on the course to total shutdown. That plant supplied on third of the electricity used in the New York City region in NY. Cuomo also put in place regulations that made oil and coal fired electric plants uneconomical. These moves gave a great push to the construction of new natural gas fired generating plants. That used up a chunk of supply. Cuomo talks about how wind and solar power can fill the gap, but that's a pipedream that cannot be realized. So the result of Cuomo's policies is a shortage of gas with a resulting shutdown of new customers.
Now consider what the lack of natural gas for new customers means. If you want to build new homes in the region, your choice for a heating system has just been limited to electric. You could use a fuel pump, but that still needs an auxiliary source for heating. Electric heat is much more expensive than natural gas heating, so it will push the ability to own a home beyond the means of many people.
If you want to relocate a business to New York, you will also be out of luck if you need a natural gas supply. Sure, those who work in offices may not be affected immediately, but those companies that run factories or even warehouses may quickly find that they can't get the fuel they need to heat and power their installations. A factory might well locate in Pennsylvania rather than New York just because of the problems in the NY natural gas supply system. This won't affect every new company, but if it cuts those coming to NY by even 20%, it will make a big dent in the growth of the region.
Cuomo and his "green" policies are actually doing nothing more than damaging the economy in New York. It's a sad thing to watch as the misguided progressive religion of Climate Change results in the sacrifice of the NY economy.
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