They Need To Fix The Climate Law In Albany, To Make Life More Affordable For New Yorkers

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday morning. What is today is Paul Zuber and is easy senior Vice President of the Business Council of New York State and his nickname the Voice of Reason. Well, Paul Zuber, what the heck is going on? And we’re going to be able to stay in business in New York State, in New York City.

0:21 Speaker 2 You know, John, I don’t know, because you know, there’s this interesting fight going on in Albany because over the climate law. And just recently there was a group of I believe it’s twenty three New York State senators informed the governor that they refuse to make any changes to the climate law. And you know, to me, this is

0:41 the perfect example of what frustrates the people out there, you know, the average everyday person. Because the governor’s own agency came out with a report and they asked the agency, okay, look at how much this climate law is going to cost us now that the world’s changed and everything’s changed.

1:00 And what they said was, you can expect gasoline, on top of what you’re paying for gas at the pump, to go up an additional two dollars and twenty three cents per gallon, so on top of what you’re paying, you’re going to pay additional two dollars and twenty three cents.

1:14 If you live upstate and you use oil or gas, your costs are going to exceed four thousand dollars a year in extra costs. And if you’re in New York City and you use natural gas, it’s going to exceed twenty three hundred dollars a year in extra costs. And this is a perfect example of me of Okay, the

1:32 law doesn’t work, so what’s wrong. We’re going back and fixing it to make it work for the everyday person. Because if you’re telling the everyday person that they’re now going to have to pay on top of what they’re paying an extra two dollars and twenty three cents a gallon.

1:48 Think about it. If you own a small car and a small car takes twelve dollars a gas, that means you’re paying an excess of twenty six dollars extra on top of what is already costing you to fill your car.

2:00 If you have a mid sized car and it does sixteen dollars, you’re paying an extra over thirty five dollars. And if you do the math, you’re costing people if you fill your car up once once a week, which most people fill it up twice a week. It’s costing you an extra over one hundred and seven dollars more

2:16 if you have a small car, and over one hundred and forty two dollars more if you have a mid sized car. So how are you helping the working class New Yorkers who have to get in their car every day and drive to work and provide for the fairly?

2:28 How are you helping them if you’re unwilling to fix a law that the governor’s own agency says is going to cost you this much more to the average consumer. It really kind of is upsetting to me that we don’t look at things in terms of what the average person has to do, in terms of what they have

2:50 to go through to get through life. And you know, this is a perfect example. Like, you know, I’m just beside myself that people aren’t saying, Okay, you know, we need to fix it. No one’s saying to completely scrap it.

3:02 But what they’re saying. What we’re saying is there’s other forms of energy like clean natural gas, you know, nuclear other things that you need to look at. You need to kind of look at it with the above all kind of strategy and stop going down this this insane path.

3:20 As far as I’m concerned, I.

3:22 Speaker 1 Agree with you. That’s why I gave you the nickname the Voice of Region. Reason. I mean, right now, we’re limited that we could only build you’re in a real estate business, besides other businesses. We could only build apartment houses with ninety nine apartments. Otherwise the penalties and the course gore prohibitive. So what you’re what you’re doing is

3:51 you’re making your saying, well, let’s not do anything and put the put the put the land in inventory and come back to it someday.

3:59 Speaker 2 Well joh, again, that’s another choice. It’s not working right. So it’s okay, you passed a bill and it didn’t work right, So fix it right like because to your point, and we’re hearing it a lot from developers, right, they build it up to ninety nine and then they’re done. Right, But meanwhile everybody’s clamoring, well, why isn’t there more housing,

4:19 Why isn’t there more this? Right, But you’ve created a situation where you’re forcing people to do the complete opposite of what you want to want them to do. Okay, then fix it I don’t know.

4:30 Speaker 1 What is with the mayor Mundani who had a meeting with President Trump and President Trump will give him an unlimited amount of money for affordable housing. But I guess he has to cooperate with President Trump. So it’s up to the up to the tour of them to do the right thing for everybody.

4:51 Speaker 2 Yeah, absolutely, and that’s where and that’s where, Like you know, I always think about it with my kids, right, Like you know, eventually anybody has kids, you just tell them when they break something or do something, just fix it right, Just fix it right. You know, you want your kids to use common sense, So why can’t we just use

5:07 common sense when we see things aren’t working. It’s okay to raise your hand and say, okay, I made a mistake. But I always teach my kids when you make a mistake, you have to learn how to fix it. So go ahead and fix it. And so like you talked about with the ninety nine, you know, apartments that you’re limiting,

5:25 like what I’m talking about with the climate law. I mean, we could go on and on and on and on about things that are done, and particularly things that were done during the COVID pandemic that just don’t work anymore, and everybody is just so stuck in the mud, like they don’t want to take blame for it. They’re worried

5:42 about what people. Just fix it. And I think that’s all the American public wants. They just want you to fix it, Like the point of blame. We’re past the point of blame, like we you know, blame Republicans, blame Democrats, blame whoever. Just fix it. And I think that’s what we want. And you know, hopefully the legislation. Sure, we’ll

6:00 work with the governor and fix the climate law. I mean, you know, to her credit, you know, she’s taken a lot of heat from the environmental movement for wanting to fix it. But you know, look, I give her credit for raising her hand and saying, oops, you know, this isn’t working. So let’s let’s move on and try to

6:16 find a way that it works for everybody. And you know, it’s just, you know, common sense sometimes gets lost, you know, with the politics, and it’s unfortunate.

6:25 Speaker 1 Understood. Well, thank you so much for coming on this Sunday morning, and let’s keep praying for common sense, and let’s keep praying for our city in our state. Thank you. So much.

6:36 Speaker 2 I’m going to church right now to pray for it.

6:38 Speaker 1 John, I’ll be there next to you. Thanks.