As climate costs rise, will Colorado follow New York’s “breathing room” playbook?

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project

NY’s narrative on “breathing room” for climate mandates here in Colorado?

I got the issue of Sarah Montalbano’s energy newsletter about a week ago.**

In it, Ms. Montalbano details how New York Governor Hochul recently mentioned how that state needs some “breathing room” on its self-imposed climate mandates.

This is a site/newsletter dedicated to Colorado issues, so I will leave the rest of her newsletter there, save for one quote which will be relevant for us here.

Quoting with links left intact:

“Hochul blamed factors such as a ‘global pandemic,’ and ‘some of the highest inflation we had seen in years,’ for rattling supply chains, as well as a ‘hostile’ administration in Washington eliminating tax credits for wind and solar projects. Hochul added that ‘no matter what we do, we’re always going to fail because we jacked up the standards so high on ourselves.’”

I am sure that when Colorado faces similar problems with our climate policy–that when the bill comes due on this stuff and people see its economic cost–that the politicians will have all sorts of reasons why we need our own “breathing room” and why they have made life expensive.

You already see glimmers of it in other policies like those for Medicaid, etc.

The other claims (COVID, inflation) warrant a look, but I want to zero in on something Gov Hochul said above because I think it is a narrative you already see here in Colorado too. “… a ‘hostile’ administration in Washington eliminating tax credits for wind and solar projects.”

That is, our state failed in its endeavors because of a lack of Federal help. Without this or that subsidy, without Federal dollars, we just can’t do it.

Like a lot of narratives, it’s worth stopping to examine it and what it means. It’s worth asking questions. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say the current administration is hostile to a lot of Colorado’s policy, just as it’s not unreasonable to say the previous administration was friendly. Thus the nature of Federal vs. State politics; the reverse often happens in stalwart Republican states.

Regardless of hostile vs. friendly, however, ask yourself why it is that we made so many things in Colorado contingent on Federal funding?

The people running this state did it because it allowed them to tell their constituents all the wonderful things they were doing without having to get those same constituents to sign off on paying the bill. They hid the true cost of their programs under Federal largesse.

In other words, no matter how the politicians try to sell it, no matter how their allies in the media (see post 2 today) try to spin it, the blame for what has and will happen economically in Colorado are partly our fault.

It is the result of decisions OUR politicians made, not a hostile administration.

Our choice to nationalize Colorado’s policy preferences and make us dependent on the whims of the Feds.

Our choice to shift Federal funding to other state programs to keep state costs lower.

Our choice to create new programs using Federal money that “didn’t cost us anything”, the state equivalent of “see, no payments for 3 years” on that couch or siding or TV.

Our choice to continue both of those kinds of programs when the Federal money dried up.

Don’t buy what Colorado’s version of Hochul will be trying to sell you. Hold them to their decisions.

**Great source of info on energy, renewables, etc. highly recommended that you subscribe.

https://sarahmontalbano.substack.com/p/governor-hochul-new-york-needs-breathing

READ THE FULL COMMENTARY AT THE COLORADO ACCOUNTABILITY PROJECT

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