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Monday, July 22, 2019

The Blackout Is Mostly A Mental Blackout

One of the funniest items in today's news is the announcement by NY governor Cuomo that he is going to investigate Con Ed (the local electric utility) regarding the blackouts in New York City.  It seems that Cuomo (and New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio) have blacked out everything that they have done to prevent there being adequate power for the Big Apple.

Starting years ago, Cuomo did all he could to get Indian Point closed.  That is the nuclear plant that supplied roughly 40% of the power in New York City.  Cuomo ultimately forced Con Ed to shut the plant which had operated for many decades and which provided relatively inexpensive and totally clean power.

Meanwhile, Cuomo lobbied hard to get all coal fired plants closed.  With Indian Point being closed, these coal plants became more important and they operated more than they otherwise would have done.  That meant more emissions -- thanks governor Cuomo.  Ultimately, however, Cuomo forced Con Ed to shut down nearly all coal fired plants and all are scheduled for shut down.  That meant less power is available and the cost is higher.

Meanwhile, Con Ed started converting to natural gas, a much cleaner fuel than coal.  Cuomo's response has been to do all he can to limit the supply of natural gas available in New York.  The state banned drilling for gas, even though New York has part of the Marcellus field which could produce copious gas for local use.  Worse, Cuomo has blocked all manner of pipelines that could supply gas across the state.  As a result, gas utilities have refused to take on any new customers.  This is strangling home building and other construction, and it is constricting the amount of gas available for the power plants.

So NY has no nuclear, no coal and restricted nat gas.  All is thanks to Cuomo and his efforts.  Now that there are blackouts, Cuomo is going to investigate why there isn't enough power.  What a phony.  All he needs to do to investigate is to get a mirror and look in it.  Pretending that he has no responsibility for this is a crazy stunt by Cuomo.  New Yorkers may believe his lies, but ultimately the truth will out.

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