To the Editor:

Governor Cuomo needs to walk the talk on climate. Cuomo claims that he is a “climate leader.”

Yet, Cuomo has approved 16 times as much new utility-scale gas capacity as new wind and solar, which currently only makes up 5 percent of New York’s energy generation.

The Public Service Commission Cuomo appoints still has no real plan to get the state off of gas, or to force utilities to comply with the climate law, which requires New York to get to 70 percent renewable energy by 2030. In fact, the PSC has made it harder for clean renewables to take off by passing complex policies that devalue renewables while shelling out billions of our dollars in subsidies for fracked gas and nuclear energy.

And now, the PSC is hearing another proposal from National Grid to raise our rates to pay for increased profits and more gas infrastructure.

While Cuomo did ban fracking in New York, he’s ensuring that our state will be reliant on importing fracked gas from other states for decades to come. There is also a well-documented revolving door between the Cuomo administration and fossil fuel companies like Williams and National Grid.

It’s time for Governor Cuomo to “walk the talk” on climate. He should reject National Grid’s rate hike proposal and all new fossil fuel infrastructure, because fancy rhetoric alone isn’t going to save our planet.

Robert Connors

Canaan, New York