Today was the day that New York City was supposed to be decongested (with about $700 million in tax dollars spent in prep, according to the Wall Street Journal).
From New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s web site:
As Governor, Kathy is committed to ensuring that New York leads the transition to a clean energy future and advances climate justice. Since taking office, she has led efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions … She has also invested millions in climate justice fellowships for historically disadvantaged communities. Governor Hochul is working tirelessly to ensure that New York is a global leader in the fight against climate change, and she will continue enacting policies to protect our communities and the next generation of New Yorkers from the growing threats of the climate crisis.
From her official governor’s site:
“We have a moral obligation to leave this extraordinary planet better than we found it,” Governor Hochul said. … These issues, if not addressed collectively with great urgency, pose existential threats to humans and other living beings, as well as the ecosystems they depend upon.
CNN, June 5… “NY Gov Hochul delays controversial NYC congestion pricing plan ‘indefinitely’”:
New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced Wednesday she is indefinitely delaying the implementation of congestion pricing in New York City’s borough of Manhattan just weeks before the plan was set to take effect, … New York’s congestion pricing would have been the first of its kind in the United States. Similar programs have been implemented in London and Stockholm. The New York City version has been years in the making and was scheduled to begin June 30th. As part of the plan, drivers would have paid $15 to enter Manhattan south of 60th street, with commercial vehicles and trucks paying steeper tolls.
So humanity is doomed if we don’t stop spewing out CO2 while sitting in massive traffic jams and also we shouldn’t do anything to discourage people from spewing out CO2 while sitting in massive traffic jams. We’re in a “climate crisis” that isn’t one of those critical crises in which we might want to take action.
Related:
- Climate change is an existential threat, but China is a bigger threat (Joe Biden’s tariffs on Chinese-made products that would reduce CO2 emissions)
- Harvard picks a president to grapple with the existential Climate and COVID crises that it previously identified (imagine that there was a time when people at Harvard cared about something other than river-to-the-sea liberation of Palestine!)
- Is it time for a climate lockdown? (if 100 percent of humans could die from climate change why wouldn’t we at least apply the restrictions that Covidcrats imposed to deal with a threat to 0.2 percent of humans?)
SF seems Way(mo) ahead of NYC… and it’s mostly happening privately, but on public roads… [Waymo’s fleet includes Jaguar I-Pace electric SUVs and ZEEKR EVs, which are retrofitted with cameras and sensors to help them navigate. Waymo also uses chargers powered by 100% renewable energy.]
In 2001 the government of Canadastan mailed every household their plan for climate change, based on scary+dire predictions. 20+ years later, every one of their predictions was wrong, none came true:
@Dr., In the 80’s there was another scare going around: the planet running out of fresh water to drink, land to plant, food to eat, oil to keep homes warm, etc. We were given decades before we hit doomsday!
The New York congestion toll/fee/tax (whatever) was withdrawn/delayed because Hochul was loath to introduce it right before an election.
Like everything else for Democrats, even core beliefs, like the inevitability of total global destruction if we don’t act decisively and globally to rein in global warming, is less important than retaining power.
The toll/fee/tax was never about reducing carbon emissions or reducing congestion, it was about keeping the poors out of the way of the elites. They can afford wait to a non election year to do that.