Blue states are losing popularity and businesses.

0:00 Speaker 1 What is this morning? We have palled Zuba with the New York State Business Council, and there’s so many things going on in New York State that people are starting to get concerned. Pulled Zuber, What are you concerned about this week?

0:15 Speaker 2 Well, I’m concerned John with some of the mandates that are being passed down from the state in terms of our energy and environmental policies in the state. I think one of the big things that have kind of caught everybody’s attention recently is the requirement that by twenty thirty five, all New York school districts will have school buses that

0:42 are electric. And I think everybody would think that sounds great, But here’s a big problem. It’s about four hundred thousand dollars is the cost of an electric school bus. Now, who’s paying for all those school buses or school district Not only do you have the cost of the bus, which is one hundred thousand dollars because the buses are

1:04 so heavy, because now you have electric vehicles where the batteries are almost the weight of a small compact car. The lifts in the garage that lift the school buses up so you can repair the school buses. They actually cannot do that anymore because because the school bus is too heavy. So now not only do you have to

1:26 are you paying for the school bus, but now you’re paying to retrofit the garage. And we haven’t even gotten to the issue of creating charging stations throughout a school district to make sure that the buses can be properly charged to take kids to school.

1:46 Speaker 1 I think they’re being a little bit premature in the amount of money. I mean, people are going away from electric vehicles right now, and I’m not sure there are one hundred percent reliable.

2:00 Speaker 2 I agree with you, and I think that that’s a major concern, particularly in upstate New York. I mean, think about anybody who’s listening to the show, whether you’re from downstate or upstate or from another state, all you have to do is go into Upstate New York and see the ups and downs and the hills and the mountains

2:18 and the different terrain that you have to travel through. I think there’s going to be a major concern whether those electric school buses are going to be able to do that. But now you’re talking about probably an extra twenty million dollars in costs for all the school buses in New York State to become ev school buses. I

2:39 know that there is a school district near Aubany that did an analysis of how much changing to electric school buses is going to cost them. They came out with a total of twenty million dollars is going to cost them twenty million dollars to be able to have electric school buses for that school district. So, again, who’s going

2:58 to pay for that two percent salary cap in New York State? There is no way to pay for that unless you pass it on to the taxpayers in some form or the state comes up with some form of money to pay for it. And as we know right now, we’re in a horrific budget crisis in New York State

3:18 where we’re looking at a huge deficit this year and a larger deficit next year, and a year after and a year after. So this is becoming like a real problem. And again it’s adding on to this element in New York State that we’re in an unlivable state and that telling our residents, well, you might as well go someplace

3:38 else because we’re going to hit you with all these taxes. We’re going to hit you with all these different mandates, and it’s not going to be for the betterment of you. It’s not going to be the betterment of your family.

3:48 It’s actually going to cost you more money to live here. And so you know, we might as well just we might as well take an electric school bus and let everybody jump on and then send them down to Florida, because that’s what we’re doing right now.

4:01 Speaker 1 It’s it’s a mess. There’s so many other things going on. I know, we’re building a new building in the city and they’re demanding electric electric everything, electric heating, electric electrical stoves. I mean, what happens if something happens to the grid.

4:29 You can’t eat because you can’t cook, you can’t the refrigerator is not gonna work, and it’s not going to be in the building, is not going to be heated.

4:39 Speaker 2 Well, that is that’s a that’s a huge problem, John, and it’s something that has actually come up from the New York the Independent System Operators, So that’s the group out there that actually looks at the grid and determines whether or not the grid is functioning in a proper manner.

4:57 They’ve already said that there are potential reliability issues right now because we’re taking offline different forms of energy that don’t fit into the new Climate Statute that we passed in New York, so they’re taking them off grid, and we haven’t actually connected all the transmission lines the solar farms and the wind farms. And so what’s happening as

5:24 well is because of some of the most recent winter occurrences and because everybody wants to go electric now, the demand for electricity is increasing. So this is what’s happening to you as a consumer. Your bills are going to go up because you’re building these transmission lines, but the pressure with wanting more electricity is now putting more of

5:47 a burden on the system. And the problem is in the winter time, if we’re going to potentially have brownouts, it’s a real problem because there’s a difference between having a brown out in the summer and it’s not any degrees and you have to take a fan and your sweating and you know, it’s miserable, but it’s dangerous when

6:08 you have a brown out and it’s twenty degrees outside and it’s snowing. And that’s where we’re headed if we don’t start thinking more creatively about how we want to enact this climate bill or statute that was passed in Aubany.

6:27 Speaker 1 It is very very sad in Albany. I can’t can’t understand. Why do you The governor the other day enacted a reparation for slavery. I mean, where does this come from? It’s been outlowed in New York to New York to since eighteen seventeen.

6:50 Speaker 2 Yeah, you know, I think that, you know, it’s going to be very important for the governor to make sure that that this commission that they’re setting up is looking at the right things. I I My concern with it really is I’m not sure that this thing has been thought out as well as it as it should have

7:16 been thought out. I think there’s still a lot of questions that need to be answered before moving forward with it. You know. I do think that you know, if you, if you, it’s kind of like one of those situations that you know, she moves forward with it. You know, what’s what’s the what’s the ultimate outcome? How are we

7:39 going you know, what is the ultimate outcome going to be? And I’m not sure we really kind of have a grip or understanding on that. So, you know, I think if you have to be determined as to what will result from this bill and and what will be the impact of this bill. You know, I do think that

7:57 it’s something that you know, needs a lot of our deep thought before moving forward.

8:03 Speaker 1 Paul Zuber, have a merry Christmas, a happy holiday, enjoy with your family, and we’ll catch up again real soon.

8:11 Speaker 2 All right, Thank you, John, You as welcome