… and taxpayers doubly so.
Queen Kathy of New York has seen fit to charge fossil fuel companies for being “major polluters”. She goes on to state:
Never mind that the energy companies she seeks to penalized are producing exactly what the customers desire – fuel to power their cars, heat their homes, and run their televisions. Never mind that the energy companies are not burning the fuel and generating the “climate crisis” of which Hochul speaks; no, that responsibility falls squarely on the shoulders of the people who are demanding and using the energy.
So why is Hochul not blaming global warning on the people actually burning the fuel – i.e., the consumer? Oh, wait – she is! She’s just not telling them. Just who do you think will pay these new fees – the oil executives? Their stock holders? Or the consumer? Yeah; that’s what I think, too.
Such laws always seem to tout a dubious public good, ex: for the children, for the environment, for the homeless, etc. But in reality these laws are nothing more than a “stupid tax” to fuel a slush fund for political pet projects, financed by people far too stupid to realize that it is they who are footing the bill. You’d think people would have learned from California’s treatment of PG&E (Remember the wildfire costs levied against PG&E, leading to some of the highest energy costs in the nation?).
In the words of Forrest Trump [sic]: “Stupid is as stupid does.”