1. United States
2. N.Y.
3. Letter

Reality Cuts Both Ways Fred LeBrun is right that affordability is real. Anyone staring down a winter heating bill knows that without being told. But from that shared starting point, his argument collapses into a false choice: weaken New York’s climate goals or face political ruin. That framing mistakes difficulty for impossibility and cost for failure. The Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act was not passed on a whim. It followed years of study and public debate, grounded in a simple reality the column largely ignores: doing nothing is not free. Climate-driven damage to infrastructure, health, insurance markets, and energy reliability carries a price tag far larger than any planned transition. Labeling continued reliance on fossil fuels as “reality” also glosses over why energy is unaffordable in the first place. Heating oil prices are set by volatile global markets, not by climate laws. Clean energy investments are meant to reduce that exposure over time, not indulge in wishful thinking. Yes, the transition will cost money. So did electrification, highways, and every major modernization this country has ever undertaken. The question is not whether there will be sticker shock, but whether it is managed transparently and fairly—or deferred until the bill is far worse. If there is a political price to be paid, it may come less from acting too boldly than from telling New Yorkers that the future is inconvenient, unaffordable, and therefore negotiable. Reality, inconvenient as it is, cuts both ways.