Last month, when my work took me to India, I learned a surprising lesson: On green energy, the \u201cdeveloping world\u201d is light-years ahead of New York.<\/p>\n
And the current crisis at the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>, where a fossil-fuel chokepoint has sent New Yorkers\u2019 costs soaring, puts the Empire State\u2019s energy airball in sharp focus.<\/p>\n Gov. Kathy Hochul has tacitly acknowledged Albany\u2019s failure<\/a> to grapple with the practical realities of its insistence on the need to wholly transition the state\u2019s economy<\/a> from fossil fuels to renewables.<\/p>\n Now she\u2019s trying a new strategy<\/a>: Memory-holing New York\u2019s flagship 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.<\/p>\n Ironically, in the years since that bill passed, the state\u2019s dependence on fossil fuels has only increased, so badly have our leaders flubbed the green-energy side of the equation.<\/p>\n Hence her election-year CLCPA U-turn, despite the continued need for new energy sources.<\/p>\n Halfway around the world, the country best known to many New Yorkers as the origin of street-food memes is leading the way on high-tech renewables.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the state that engineered the subway system, the Empire State Building and the Erie Canal has struggled to stand up a fraction of India\u2019s windmills and solar panels.<\/p>\n Strategically, India has adopted a Trump-like \u201call of the above\u201d approach to energy \u2014 while New York policymakers have preferred gas bans, wild pronouncements, red tape and general incompetence.<\/p>\n Tactically, India sees its private-sector energy producers as partners, not as piggy banks or as evil corporations that can be punished into generating electricity for the rest of us.<\/p>\n The net result is that India last year crossed a line: More than 50% of its electricity capacity comes from renewables \u2014 five years ahead of its 2030 deadline to hit that mark.<\/p>\n (Actual power generation is still 70% from fossil fuels, but the progress is still remarkable.)<\/p>\n For its part, New York adopted a ridiculous central-planning path toward unrealistic 2030 climate goals, which it\u2019s now kicking to\u00a020-maybe-never as\u00a0it scrubs references to the CLCPA from its websites.<\/p>\n At Khavda, for example, a massive salt flat along India\u2019s western frontier, Adani Green Energy installed the first 9 gigawatts of electric power just five years after its hybrid wind-solar project won government approval.<\/p>\n When completed in 2029, the site will be the largest renewable park in the world, generating a total of 30 gigawatts, enough to power every single home in New York State at peak summer load.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Adani uses a combination of solar panels, wind turbines and battery storage systems to continuously feed the grid.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tGet opinions and commentary from our columnists\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSubscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter!\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n Sure, the sun is a little stronger at Khavda\u2019s latitude, but the wind is no windier, nor are its batteries made from some unknown Martian metal.<\/p>\n The fundamental difference is that the Indian government figured out unleashing the private sector \u2014 not regulating it to death \u2014 helps both achieve their shared goals.<\/p>\n Prime Minster Narendra Modi laid out a map; Adani and its competitors built the roads.<\/p>\n Here, Albany laid out a path full of potholes, bumps and U-turns, ensuring almost nothing happened.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s a pattern that holds true nationwide: Blue states like ours \u201clead\u201d on climate mandates and press releases, while red states with less regulation actually execute and develop green-energy projects.<\/p>\n Compare New York with Texas, which is the nation\u2019s No. 1 wind-energy producer and No. 2 in solar.<\/p>\n The Lone Star State focused on expanding its network of high-voltage transmission lines to allow more private landowners to connect to the grid, then gave them an expedited permitting process for turbines and solar panels.<\/p>\n New York, meanwhile, is nearing 20 years on its side-quest to build the Champlain-Hudson power line, drowning it in permitting problems.<\/p>\n That makes New York more vulnerable to the current global energy squeeze than Texas is.<\/p>\n