In an all-too-tellingly-empty stunt, Gov. Kathy Hochul last week ordered the state Department of Environmental Conservation to issue regulations banning the sale of gas-powered cars, pickups and SUVs by . . . 2035.
It’s not just that she’ll be long gone by then, or that she was simply marking National Drive Electric Week by pretending to keep up with California’s similarly dubious 2035 only-electric rule.
Nor that, as even The New York Times admits, electric cars are still far too expensive and impractical for all but the rich — with vast technological and industrial progress needed before they make sense even for the middle class.
Not to mention building hundreds of thousands of charging stations (New York now has just over 10,000) to make mass EV use remotely practical.
No: It’s that Hochul’s policies are already making electricity much more expensive, and the pain’s only begun. John Howard, the former head of the Public Service Commission (the main electric regulator) warned this year that the state’s carbon-free-energy law will cost New Yorkers “hundreds of billions” in higher energy bills.
As with the supposed 2035 all-electric-car rule, that insanity won’t fully kick in ’til long after Hochul’s gone.
As long as New York remains a one-party state, the Democrats who run things can keep blaming ConEd and other unlucky messengers for the mounting pain. It’s one more reason to vote out every Dem you can this Election Day.