To the editor:

Not-so-fun-fact: 2023 was the hottest year on Earth in recorded human history.

Across New York, smoke from Canadian wildfires entered lungs and turned skies orange. Here in the Adirondacks, flood waters swept through Long Lake and hit hard at other communities.

Winter sports enthusiasts — snowmobilers, skiers, and welcoming local businesses — were left pining for the good ol’ days. The 2023-24 season’s “new normal” warmth curtailed their fun, and vital spending, in equal measure.

Now it’s 2024. The state Legislature and Gov. Kathy Hochul just declared agreement on a state budget. Glaringly absent is action on the global, and local, heating crisis.

The jarring contrast between our warming reality and the government’s cool indifference would be laughable, if it weren’t so serious.

The budget’s biggest omission was the NY HEAT Act, a proposed law that would modernize energy planning, empowering the New York Public Service Commission to chart a gradual, sensible, safe and affordable transition away from burning unhealthy fossil gas and toward homes powered by clean energy.

The NY HEAT Act also would end an egregious fossil fuel subsidy, New York’s so-called “100 foot rule.” An outdated policy, it forces existing utility ratepayers (that’s us) to foot the bill for extending fossil gas lines to new customers. Our cost? More than $200 million per year!

So, dear legislators, especially in the Assembly: Roll up your sleeves and engage with the climate crisis impacting all of us. There is time remaining in this legislative session to finalize and pass the NY HEAT Act.

Andrew Foster

Piercefield