New York Republicans Trying to Slip Pricey Biofuels Mandate into Budget
- by Fredric U. Dicker, March 2, 2015, New York Post
[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"406","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","style":"width: 300px; height: 200px; margin: 3px 10px; float: left;","title":"Photo: Gabriella Bass"}}]]With a bitter-cold winter and skyrocketing heating oil use, the GOP’s timing couldn’t be worse.
Senate Republicans, under pressure from maverick supermarket billionaire John Catsimatidis, are trying to slip a “green biofuels” mandate into Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s new budget that could add $150 million a year to heating costs in New York, business sources have told The Post.
Catsimatidis, a Republican mayoral hopeful in 2013 and a heavy campaign contributor to Senate Republicans as well as Cuomo, is well known in the city for owning the Gristedes supermarket chain.
But he’s also the owner of United Metro Energy Corp., a large company that is putting the finishing touches on a massive Brooklyn biofuel-processing plant that will be the largest in the Northeast when it opens this fall.