Those of us over the age of 60 remember the bad old days of the 1970s when Jimmy Carter’s dingbat solution to energy shortages and rising utility bills was to ask Americans to wear cardigan sweaters and lower their home thermostat to 67 degrees in the dead of winter to save fuel. It turned him into a laughing stock.

Now Gov. Hochul wants to go back to the future. She has asked New Yorkers in the throes of the state’s record heat wave to save energy by turning up their home thermostats up to as high as a sweltering 78 degrees. Apparently, air conditioning is only for the privileged few.

That’s not all. Syracuse.com reports that Hochul has announced an Orwellian plan where the utility would pay homeowners up to $300 for a full year. Here’s the catch: participants in the plan “would allow the utility to adjust your smart thermostat by a couple degrees on days when electricity usage is soaring – typically, the hottest days of the year – to throttle back your air conditioning and save energy.”

None of these emergency energy rationing plans would be necessary in New York had it not been for Hochul’s anti-fracking and green energy policies, which have wiped out an estimated 3,000 megawatts of reliable energy – enough to power over two million homes.