Wash Post Editorial Board Turns Against Climate Agenda?! 'Symbolic climate gestures please activists, but they become a political liability when the bills come due' – 'New York realizes it cannot afford its green promises' – While 'Florida has chosen to base its energy generation on reliability & affordability, instead of ideology'

Washington Post Editorial Board: New York's crusade against gas stoves is being placed on the back burner: Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) recently delayed the implementation of a 2023 ban on running gas in new buildings before it took effect in January.

That hasn't been Hochul's only climate backtrack. In November, she agreed to a Trump-backed gas pipeline, marking the Empire State's first pipeline in at least a decade — and the first since they passed their hallmark climate law in 2019 requiring the state to cut carbon emissions 40 percent by 2030. Hochul also signed an agreement granting permits to a gas-powered crypto mining facility, on the condition the plant nearly halves its pollution by 2030.

When asked in October about the mandate for no gas in new buildings, the governor said she's "going to look at this with a very realistic approach and do what I can, because my number one focus is affordability." Hochul's U-turn is an admission that the anti-energy agenda pushed by far-left environmental groups was always unaffordable.

Climate activists accuse Hochul of being a traitor, but maybe the governor has finally realized that there's rarely any upside to pursuing unrealistic decarbonization plans. At the very least, it looks like she's paying attention to voters during a reelection cycle. Polling shows 61 percent of New Yorkers — including 54 percent of Democrats — "somewhat" or "strongly" agree that keeping energy affordable in the state is more important right now than reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

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It's no coincidence that most of the states with the highest prices also have the most ambitious decarbonization mandates.