Will Andrew Cuomo Turn New York Into Pyongyang?

For a brief time, New York's governor was seen as the heir apparent to the 2016 Democratic presidential throne.  Now that he's gone back on every word he's ever spoken about fiscal sanity and "getting tough on unions", he's been demoted back to the status of  "liberal governor v1.0", and talk of his ascendancy to national leadership has pretty much ceased.

Deservedly so.  For the governor is about to take the state of New York - struggling already - and its flagship city and drive it down to third-world status, in order to placate the environmental lobby.  Via the Washington Free Beacon:

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is hard at work ensuring the closure of the Indian Point nuclear power plant that helps power New York City – and some of his closest political allies stand to profit significantly from the deal.

Records show that Cuomo has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from individuals funding a competitor to the nuclear power plant, as well as from individuals who object to its existence on ideological grounds.

Indian Point, owned by the Entergy Corp., is applying to the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for renewal of its reactors’ operating licenses, which expire in 2013 and 2015. Though the plant provides roughly 25 to 30 percent of New York City’s energy, Cuomo wants the site closed because of “safety concerns".

But there are no safety concerns, as the article lays out, save for the meltdown fantasies that are both the fantasy and fetish of the environmental Left.  What will happen for sure, should this plant close, is the loss of millions of tax dollars, thousands of jobs, and most importantly, the lack of a power supply to run the state:

The New York Times reported that it would “take years and require a long-term energy strategy” to replace the 2,000 megawatts of private-sector energy that Indian Point provides to homes and businesses throughout New York City and Westchester County.

A leaked preliminary draft of a report by New York City’s Department of Environmental Conservation predicts dire results stemming from the plant’s closure: The city’s energy costs would rise up to 10 percent and citywide reliability problems would begin within a year of the second reactor’s expiration.

Despite these concerns, the governor refuses to back down.

Because this is not about reason, or rationality - it is about one man's greed, one man's ambition, one man's desire to keep the money flowing - to himself. And the destruction of the city of New York will merely be collateral damage in his rise to power.

While he preens for the Left, New Yorkers will suffer brownouts and rolling blackouts as the state frantically searches for power sources.  The financial giants will leave downtown, ending the free ride for New York's welfare state.  A declining quality of life - long waits in stalled subway trains, stifling nights with no air conditioning, lack of business or industry - will send the population fleeing.  Huge segments of the city will be simply abandoned and the tax base will plummet, leaving the poor to fend for themselves, as the government they have lived off of for so many years will no longer have the means to care for them.

Alas for Andrew, destruction of a great city does not quite qualify one for higher office. Otherwise, we'd be picking our next president from Detroit's City Council....