It's sad when some dreams crumble. I mean, it tugs at your heartstrings, seeing little crumpled faces from crushed hopes.
I don't have that problem when Green grifting fever dreams crash and burn, though I do get a little sick to my stomach thinking of all the wasted time, money, and heartburn they caused people when failure was inevitable.
And here we are again.
New York State, and New York City in particular, have long been ardent adherents of the Cult of Climate, much to the detriment of their citizens and the erosion of a once-envied standard of living.
Mandates and restrictive insanity make life unbearable and tremendously expensive, and unreliable power generation makes it enormously challenging. These can all be laid at the feet of the Climate Cult and their myopic, fanatical focus on renewable vice clean, dispatchable power and NetZero.
For example, here is yesterday's headline in the New York Post - cheerful, no?
Energy groups warn Hochul to restart Indian Point nuclear plant or 'the lights go out' https://t.co/szimpKVPIL pic.twitter.com/x3oNtB9gvT
— New York Post (@nypost) September 22, 2026
What they are talking about is the perfectly good Indian Point nuclear plant. They sacrificed a perfectly operational reactor ahead of schedule to satisfy the bloodlust of the NetZero gods in 2021, and have had to introduce three gas-fired power plants in the interim to make up for the power lost.
Geniuses.
The Indian Point Energy Center (Indian Point) permanently stopped generating electricity on April 30, 2021, when it retired its last operating nuclear reactor, Unit 3, earlier than originally planned. The Indian Point nuclear power plant began operations in 1962 and produced over 565 terawatthours (TWh) of electricity in the 59 years it was open. The Unit 3 retirement removes almost 1,040 megawatts (MW) of nuclear generating capacity from New York State, leaving about 3,200 MW of remaining nuclear capacity at three plants in upstate New York.
Three natural gas-fired power plants have been introduced over the past three years to help support the electric supply needed by New York City that Indian Point had been providing: Bayonne Energy Center II (120 MW), CPV Valley Energy Center (678 MW), and Cricket Valley Energy Center (1,020 MW).
...Nuclear reactors do not produce carbon emissions while operating. New York’s 2019 Clean Energy Standard (CES) requires utilities and other retail electricity suppliers in the state to obtain 100% of the electricity they sell from carbon-free sources by 2040. In addition to renewables such as wind and solar, New York’s CES recognizes nuclear power plants as zero emission resources.
Indian Point Unit 3 was one of New York’s 10 largest electricity generators; it produced over 270 TWh of carbon-free electricity since it began operating. Because of Indian Point Unit 3’s retirement, a large amount of new carbon-free generating capacity will need to come online to help meet the state’s CES goal.
Indian Point's Units 1 and 2 were also retired ahead of schedule as part of an agreement with the state of New York to prematurely shutter the facilities. Entergy, which owns the plant, had been looking at filing new 20-year extensions for all of the units until forced to close the entire thing by the green fever dream fanatics in the state government.
Energy groups are pushing Gov. Kathy Hochul to restart Indian Point’s dormant nuclear reactors as part of a new ad blitz for “Climate Week.”
The Democratic governor’s face will appear on a billboard on a truck alongside the message “open up Indian Point, or the heat goes out and the light goes out.”
Westchester County’s Indian Point was closed in 2021 under former Gov. Andrew Cuomo after years of pressure from anti-nuke activists and politicians who worried that its location just 40 miles out of Midtown would mean disaster in the case of a meltdown.
But Hochul is leading an initiative to try boost New York’s low energy generation capacity by building new nuclear reactors as residents get zapped by ever-surging utility bills.
“If Governor Hochul was sincere about jump-starting nuclear power to cut electricity prices, she would be pressing the Trump administration to expedite the recommissioning of the Indian Point nuclear power plant, where the extensive infrastructure needed is already in place,” said Steve Milloy, senior fellow at the Energy and Environment Legal Institute.
“But that is not what’s happening,” he added. “She is only sincere about her insincerity.”
Hochul has called Cuomo’s move to close the Buchanan power plant a “mistake” — though she hasn’t entertained the possibility of reopening the facility.
Indian Point produced roughly two gigawatts of energy before it was shuttered, which Hochul admits drove up demand on dirtier fossil fuel-burning power plants.
“We lost 25% of New York City’s power when Indian Point shut down. That’s something that was unforeseen,” Hochul, who served as lieutenant governor at the time of Indian Point’s closure, said on NY1’s “Inside City Hall” last week. “Nobody had a plan B. What are you supposed to do for power the next day?”
NOBODY HAD A PLAN 'B'
And no one ever notices that these people never do.
Zohran Mamdani is also a green fever dreamer, but he is running into fiscal realities in his new job. One of the things under his purview as mayor of New York City is the Metropolitan Transit Authority, with its buses and trains. The city has been gleefully buying up and rolling out electric buses since 2018 in its rush to meet a self-imposed mandate of all emissions-free buses by 2040.
One of the first things that messed with their calculations a smidge was that many of the neighborhoods the buses traverse daily also flood.
Electric buses and water...hmmmm.
...As part of its 2025-2029 capital plan, the MTA also plans to purchase 500 zero-emission buses and to install charging infrastructure at bus depots. A 2020 report from the nonprofit Tri-State Transportation Campaign recommended that the MTA consider building new depots in less flood-prone parts of the city in order to better shield buses and charging equipment from rising water.
The report pointed out that more than 3,400 buses are housed in neighborhoods with “very high,” “high” or “moderate” risk of flooding, based on 2050 flood projections.
Additionally, all these new buses are going to require buttloads of cash and lots of 'go' juice on demand, two things that are on shaky ground in the city at the moment.
...The MTA has previously said that the ambitious effort to electrify its entire fleet could cost close to $12 billion, estimating in 2022 that it would require enough power to light up 200,000 homes.
But what has really spoiled the electric bus party is that the ones they do have in the fleet have proven they were never really ready for prime time anyway.
These buses make it work less than a 16-year-old who has to pick between a party and her Target shift.
...An August audit from state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli warned that the 2040 target date for a zero-emissions fleet is “in jeopardy,” pointing out that the 75 electric buses from five MTA depots have been able to go into service less than 60% of the time that had been anticipated. But officials said the 2040 commitment remains in place.
As these non-performing buses also cost significantly more - SURPRISE! - than a plain old bus.
...“The electric buses that we have tested so far have not been up to standards. They break down too frequently,” Lieber said at a media briefing, according to The City Reporter.
“We have put the manufacturer on notice and in order for us to continue purchasing electric buses, we need that reliability standard to be met.”
You’re not kidding. For one, the $1.8 million cost of an articulated EV bus — i.e., one that bends in the middle for city driving — costs roughly 60 percent more than the diesel buses in New York’s fleet.
What to do, what to do?
Well, maintain a brave face, of course, insist that you're still a True Believer™...and go buy some natural gas buses that you can count on.
...In short, now isn’t the time that NYC needs to be making a capital outlay on something that should have been predicted long ago. But apparently, a bunch of electric buses that Gotham bought in order to go zero emissions? Yeah, it turns out that, in a development that could have been predicted by anyone who’s followed EV developments, the city’s transit authority is going to have to acquire 650 new buses that run on compressed natural gas because the EV buses won’t work.
...And the city is turning back to compressed natural gas, purchasing the 650 new CNG-powered vehicles to replace 620 CNG-powered vehicles it purchased in 2013.
The City Reporter is describing the move as “part of the MTA’s largest single upgrade to its fleet since 2013.” This is being counted as a win by the people who should have known better in the first place.
“Modern, reliable buses can spend more time on the road and less time in the shop than the old vehicles they will replace, a win for riders who depend on frequent, reliable service to get around,” Democrat New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement, according to The City Reporter.
Doesn't Governor Hochul sound like she's got it all together? Modern and 'reliable,' like she just discovered natgas buses all on her own.
Don't anyone tell her to recondition that existing nuclear plant. Let her believe she thought of reopening it.
Just to note for posterity's sake - and because I enjoy the schadenfreude - there's an awful lot of money being spent in New York replacing electric buses.
And in places where, no doubt, the expenditures are going to hurt.
Why Some Schools Are Hitting the Brakes on Electric Buses
The new models can prove expensive and unreliable and lack the range to fully replace older buses, stalling a transition from fossil fuels.
Gouverneur, N.Y., a rural town with brutal winters near the Canadian border, waited three years to receive its first pair of electric school buses. It took no time for problems to start.
After just one day of shuttling students, the buses’ high-voltage chargers began malfunctioning, sidelining the vehicles for weeks. When the buses were back on the road in November, their heating systems failed, forcing both out of service again, including one for four months.
Across the United States, school districts in large cities and small towns have started converting their bus fleets to electric from diesel, swapping the rumbling workhorse for the quiet whir of a battery-powered motor.
The transition has accelerated in recent years, fueled by more than $2.4 billion in federal grants under the Biden administration and spurred by mandates in California, New York and other states to phase out fossil fuel models. Of the roughly 500,000 school buses nationwide, about 5,000 run on batteries.
But the rollout has been rocky, rife with technical challenges and logistical headaches — and resistance from voters.
Their range on a single charge is a small fraction of that of traditional buses and drops in colder months, school officials say. Maintenance issues can idle them for weeks. And they are expensive: Some cost nearly $500,000, two to three times the price of a diesel version.
“It’s scary when the potential benefit doesn’t feel much better than a potential negative,” said Dale Munn, the business manager at the Gouverneur Central School District, which spent about $1 million to electrify two of its 28 buses, with New York State covering most of the cost.
Oh, now it's scary, and I'll bet. Especially as there aren't those big fat government subsidies covering your...what was that again?
POTENTIAL BENEFIT THAT FEELS LIKE A POTENTIAL NEGATIVE.
It's school districts and taxpayers on the hook, and their children in the cold and dark, or in potential danger from the myriad of issues these buses have experienced.
That's if the bus makes it out of the garage at all.
Or maybe that half-million-dollar albatross can't be in a garage because of battery fire concerns.
Yeah.
This all could have been avoided.
The worst thing is, if Democrats get back in power, it will all come roaring back to life with a vengeance...until the power goes out.
Editor’s Note: New York City is now facing the consequences of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s socialist takeover.
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