Climate Policy: Democrats Scale Back Goals

Is energy reality mugging Democrats? Maybe so. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul this month approved a natural gas pipeline opposed by the climate lobby, and last week Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro bailed out of a cap-and-tax program. Al Gorecall your office.

Mr. Shapiro showed his pragmatic streak when he used a budget deal with Republican legislators as an excuse to pull out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. A dozen or so states in the Northeast have joined this climate suicide pact, which involves taxing the CO2 emissions of fossil-fuel power plants. States can then spend the revenue on green climate boondoggles.