The elimination of greenhouse gases will drastically impact consumers and small business.
The following guest opinion by NFIB’s New York State Director, Greg Biryla, ran in the Sunday Edition of the Binghamton Press Sun-Bulleting on June 16:
New York’s “Green New Deal” Could Disrupt Life as We Know It
The Climate Community Protection Act (CCPA) – a well-named, probably well-intended, but ultimately devastating piece of legislation – is currently under consideration during the late stages of 2019’s state legislative session.
The CCPA seeks to completely eliminate statewide greenhouse gas emissions over the next 30 years. However, by offering no legitimate cost analysis or plan to replace New York’s energy sources, this bill will accomplish little more than disrupting all facets of New York’s economy and the daily life of almost every New Yorker.
The CCPA is structured as a series of hard and fast mandates that will radically change how New Yorkers produce, transmit, and consume energy. These mandates will be felt by every employer and consumer; the costs borne by every ratepayer and taxpayer.
A statewide zero emission standard means that propane and charcoal used to light your grill will be outlawed. So will the engines that power cars, boats, airplanes, cars, farm equipment, lawnmowers, and snowblowers. Upstate winters will certainly be a little colder without gas furnaces and heating oil.
Who will be paying to retrofit millions of homes and businesses with carbon-free heat and electric systems? One estimate of the average cost for a residential homeowner to convert their household to all electric appliances is close to $60,000. How will energy-intensive work like farming, manufacturing, and construction be completed or afforded without viable alternatives to gas-powered tractors and equipment?
These questions don’t even contemplate the more immediate costs of converting everything in our daily lives to carbon-free electricity in such a compressed timeframe. One suggested price tag is $7 billion annually. While a new tax is not specifically required by the CCPA, the bill alludes to a “market-based compliance mechanism”, which should raise concerns for every business, homeowner, and taxpayer.
One analysis by the New York Independent System Operator found that an average residential customer could see a $300 to $440 tax hike. For commercial and industrial customers, it could up to $4,300 per year.
Concrete mandates that eliminate or drastically alter the way our economy accesses and uses energy without any serious plan threatens the livelihood for millions of New York small businesses. The CCPA fails to put forward viable alternatives to replace existing energy sources, retrofit hundreds of thousands of residential and commercial structures, transition our agriculture and transportation vehicle fleets or control potentially enormous spikes in energy costs for all consumers.
Protecting our environment and growing our economy doesn’t have to be mutually exclusive. New York can be a leader on both fronts by advancing smart, thoughtful policy that transitions the Empire State to a clean energy future without adding billions of new costs on small businesses and consumers. The CCPA is a massive mandate. New York’s taxpayers and businesses need an actual plan.
Greg Biryla is the New York State Director of NFIB, a small business association that advocates on behalf of more than 10,000 small business members in New York
