GOLDEN CRESCENT AND 1000 ISLAND NEWS

  ALBANY — Democrats in the state Legislature expect Gov. Kathy Hochul to make a strong push in the coming weeks to overhaul and potentially delay the state’s energy and emissions mandates as part of the state budget.   They’re not surprised that she plans to seek those changes but that doesn’t mean they’re amenable to the idea.    It’s become increasingly clear during this year’s legislative session that Hochul plans to make a strong push to amend those mandates, including their deadlines, that were established by the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act of 2019.   “I’m looking at this from an all-the-above approach, and we’ll be closely engaging the legislators,” Hochul said Thursday.   The law’s current requirements,  Hochul and others have said , would raise costs for ratepayers. State Budget Director Blake Washington confirmed that concern Wednesday . Add Preferred Source “It’s not something we can just ignore and stick our he...

  New York’s climate law will cost upstaters twice as much as city people New York’s rural-urban divide already maps onto energy politics as tensions mount   between the places with enough land to build solar and wind farms and the metropolis with rising demand for power from those panels and turbines. Keeping the state’s landmark climate law in place and requiring New York to generate the vast majority of its power from renewables by 2040 may only widen the split. That’s the obvious takeaway from data from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. In a memo sent Thursday to Governor Kathy Hochul on the “likely costs of” complying with the law as it stands, NYSERDA warned that  the statute will increase the cost of heating oil and natural gas. Upstate households that depend on fossil fuels could face hikes “in excess of $4,000 a year,”  while New York City residents would see annual costs spike by $2,300. “Only a portion of these costs could be of...