As it builds, Gov. Hochul’s extreme green agenda is wreaking ever more havoc on New Yorkers’ lives: Now they’re coming for your refrigerator.
The Department of Environmental Conservation wants to phase out hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), used in refrigerators and air conditioners, a mandate that will stick businesses with hefty upgrade costs that they’ll have to pass on to consumers.
Grocers, obviously, will get hit, so expect food prices to keep rising on top of what record inflation’s already done.
Hochul seems to have learned nothing from the backlash to her war on gas stoves last year.
Part of the drive to drastically slash New York’s carbon emissions, the DEC proposal goes far beyond current federal requirements of an 85% reduction in use of HFCs by 2036: New York’s rule would kick in much sooner, requiring some new businesses to install HFCs-free refrigerators as soon as next year, while ordering pricey retrofitting by 2029 and replacements for businesses with large equipment by 2035.
As Democratic Assemblyman Bill Conrad pointed out, the costs could sink grocery stores in already underserved neighborhoods, creating food deserts.
It’ll add to housing costs, too: New refrigeration-utilizing air conditioning and heat pumps must be HFC-free in residences by 2028.
So the scheme’s hardest-hit victims will be businesses (which Hochul claims she wants to keep in New York) and lower-income consumers.
This all fits into New York’s “act now, think later” green agenda.
The state is trying to strong-arm New Yorkers into going electric — banning the sale of non-electric cars by 2035; outlawing gas stoves and heating in new buildings (and eventually, older ones).
Meanwhile, it’s also reducing electricity from carbon-based fuels even as its plans for power from alternative energy, like off-shore wind and solar, simply will not meet the current demand for electricity, much less the increase needed for electric heat etc.
Since alternate fuels are still more expensive than natural gas, New Yorkers who already pay above the national average for electricity will pay even more (on utility bills, or via taxes to cover state subsidies for wind etc.), even as the risk of brownouts and blackouts soars.
Is it any wonder why the Empire State continues to hemorrhage residents?
Whether it’s effectively ensuring that food prices will rise or sabotaging access to reliable, fossil-fuel energy, every time Hochul bows to the green radicals, regular New Yorkers take a hit to their quality of life (and wallets).