Why New York does NOT want you to have balcony solar

Balcony solar, also called plug-in solar, or more accurately grid-tied solar - is a childishly simple solar panel solution for home use that is literally plugged into a home wall socket. They can cost just a few hundred to a thousandish dollars, depending on the capacity. No harder than plugging in a toaster, although the solar panels tend to be a bit larger than a slice of bread. This can typically save homeowners/renters up to $300 a year and last 20-30 years - the unit can pay for itself in just a few years and save money for a long time ahead.

The New York State legislature passed the SUNNY Act (the comically acronymic "Solar Up Now New York" SUNNY Act) aka S.8512C/A.9111C on May 28th 2026. Tree hugging Liberals preened and squawked in glee as they danced shirtless around the campfire singing Kumbaya. Amidst the haze of the (legalized) pot smoke they congratulated each other on saving the planet from evil energy corporations.

But wait, there is one more step before it actually becomes Law. A Governor critter must sign it. June rolls in and the heat moves in, air conditioners roar and electric meters whirr. Con Edison starts to rake in their vig. Three weeks at the time of writing, and our NY reps never sent this bill to Governor Hokey Pokey to be signed? WTF?

Well, apparently in our dysfunctional NY State where bills are supposed to be “presented” to the Governor, in practice, bills are REQUESTED by the Governor. So our elected officials passed a bill and left on vacation (through next year, wow) without actually getting the bill SIGNED into law.

But what's the story with Geriatric Hokum? According to Rep. Mike Lawler's page she received $67,000 in campaign contributions as of last year from Con Edison. Not really in her best (financial) interest to poke the Con Ed bear, unless it can become politically expedient. Easier to dole out a measly $100 check for each New Yorker (a billion dollars worth) labelled "energy rebate checks". Those donors need to be repaid, it's only fair and the communist way - NYC's Comrade Mayor Dumdumami winks and grins like an idiot and moves on to protest the existence of automobiles.

And let's not forget the tax impact. Lower electric bills = lower taxes on your electric bills. Have you LOOKED at your Con Ed bill? You pay a "Supply Charge" plus taxes and something called GRT/tax surcharges (taxes on a tax?). That's where the utility sells you electrons on one wire and then takes them back on the other wire, something like renting beer. Then they charge you a "Delivery Charge" nearly double the cost of the supply (which is something like DoorDash except you don't get any food out of it), plus the mandatory taxes and GRT/tax surcharges on that charge. While I'm no mathematician, I'm fairly certain that reducing the "Supply" will reduce the cost of "Delivery" and of course reduce the tax and the taxes on the tax thereof. But can you imaging New York doing anything to actually LOWER your taxes? We working stiffs are the golden gooses (geese) for the liberal elite cadre that rules us with iron fists/parking tickets and thousands of traffic cameras. How dare we try to keep our own money, whilst there are socialist hordes just waiting to be paid off for their votes, the nerve!

As technologies go, plug-in solar has been around in Germany since 2017 and has taken Europe by storm in recent years. This site reports there are over a million balcony solar units "plugged in" in Germany with ZERO safety incidents. Zero. Nada. Even our crumpet-munching Brit cousins have it now, and can buy the plug-in solar panels in supermarkets! Warm beer and the sun, eww.

It's a no-brainer. Balcony solar inverters follow UL safety rules. The "plug" of the plug-in device is NOT hot with electricity even with solar panels at the other end. The UL safety features ensure no power is generated UNLESS IT IS CONNECTED TO THE GRID (and after a 10 minute delay), plus power instantly cuts off if disconnected or the grid loses power. And these units are low power, under 1,200 watts this is no more power than your proverbial toaster uses. Even Con Edison appears to agree about this technology being safe [PDF copy] And why not, they stand to lap up the extra and unused generated power which strengthens THEIR grid at no cost to them, plus they can promptly sell it back to you when the sun sets.

So let's watch Albany sit on this bill as Con Ed gets fatter. Come election time, if the golden geese start grumbling, hey we can always water down the bill with a Governor's "Chapter Amendment". So easy to slip in an extra tax or surcharge (or a tax on a surcharge) the proletariat doesn't understand (or is stoned on legal cannabis, even better).

Or they may just stuff this bill where the sun don't shine, literally and figuratively. I mean under their desk, of course! Maybe.

Stink up your property with NYC's mandatory woke composting

 

April 1st is no longer just April Fool's Day - the Mayoral turkey has turned us New Yorkers into the fools.

"It's the rats," he clucked. Never mind the lawyer jokes, "the rats are having a buffet," he gobbled. So now we have this woke ultra-leftist-liberal nonsense about "recycling our food". But it was never about the rats, or about "saving the planet", or any other altruistic baloney - as with everything the New York City Council and it's corrupt (pardoned/charges dropped/wink wink nudge nudge) Mayoral clown focuses on - is separating us fools from our money.

Avoid a Fine! screams the headline of the flyer/email. And rat on your building (pun intended) by calling 311, it crows. A sneering sanitation "inspector" menacingly clutches his ticket book to give a full visual impact.

And there you have it. That is really all the NYC socialist politburo wanted - more FINES. 

Never mind all the illegal dumping going on all around us in NYC. No no no. Our glorious sanitation KGB will be rooting through your regular garbage, looking for that crust of bread or that errant peanut, anything they can gleefully pounce upon and scribble out their citation for fattening the city coffers.

Never mind the rampant crime all around us, defund our police force and release all the recidivist "voters" to keep themselves in power.

Never mind the billowing clouds of pot smoke all over the streets of NYC, encourage drug use to grasp for more revenue and never mind the crimes it brings and never mind the drop in the quality of life for tax payers.

With (most) regular garbage being picked up twice a week - never mind the fact that this woke composting bin will fester outside our homes for up to a WEEK, never mind the smell and the vermin that will attract around OUR homes. Think it was bad so far over winter? Just wait till the temperatures climb now that spring is here and summer is around the corner, your woke bin will be cooked to a wonderous aroma.

Just another "revenue stream" for the socialists to funnel money from us hard working tax paying homeowners - to support their public assistance wards and the billion dollar budget public housing projects which brings in oh so many votes for them.

And to rub the proverbial salt in our fiscal wounds - that public housing may be EXEMPT from composting requirements! So we homeowners and taxpayers have to jump through these woke hoops to avoid the inevitable fines that will be gleefully imparted upon us - while the beneficiaries of OUR money are blatantly free of the rules. See NY Times article and NY Post article.

So from now on - refer to April 1st as NYC Fool's Day. And keep your checkbook ready for the fines that are sure to follow!

The Adams in the Hat

 

The tolls were too high.

We were too broke to pay.

So we sat in the outer boro

all that cold, cold, wet day.

I sat there with Sally.

We sat there paying taxes, we two.

And I said, "how I wish

we had money to pay tolls too!"

Too many traffic cameras to go out

And too low a speed limit to enthrall.

So we sat in the outer boro

we did nothing at all.

So all we could do was to

pay taxes!

Pay tolls!

Pay fines!

Pay the City Council trolls!

And we did not like it.

Not one little bit.

And then something went BUMP!

How that bump made us jump!

We looked!

Then we saw him step into City Hall!

We looked!

And we saw him!

The Adams in the hat!

And he said to us,

'Why do you sit there like that?'

'I know you have a job

and in your pocket some money.

but we can have

a garbage bin plan that is funny!'

'I know some good taxes we could pay,'

said the Adams.

'I know some new tolls,'

said the Adams in the hat.

'A lot of new fines.

I will penalize you

your pocket will not mind at all if I do.'

Then Sally and I

did not know what to say.

Sanity in city government was out

for the day,

But our fish said, 'No! No!

Make the Adams go away!

Tell the Adams in the hat

you do NOT want to pay.

He should not tax you.

He should not be about.

He should not be allowed

to say when you can put the trash out!'

'Now! Now! Have no fear.

Have no fear!' said the Adams

'My tolls are not bad,'

said the Adams in the hat.

'Why, we can have

lots of good fines, if you wish

with a game that I call

up-up-up with the Turkish!'

'No bribes!' said the fish.

'This is no fun at all!

No bribes!' said the fish.

'I do NOT wish to fly Turkish Airlines at all!'

'Have no fear!' said the Adams.

'I will not rip you off the wall.

I will only penalize you up high

as I tax you in the fall.

With a speed camera in one hand!

And a congestion toll on my hat!

But that is not ALL I can do!

said the Adams ...

'Look at me!

Look at me now!' said the Adams.

'With an official Otto trash can

on the top of my hat!

I can write TWO tickets

I can fine you for an open lid!

Or a little loose trash bag!

Or not composting in the little brown bin!

And look!

I can hop up and down at Mar a Lago!

But that is not all!

oh, no,

That is not all ...

'Look at me!

Look at me!

Look at me NOW!

It is fun to charge fines

but you have to know how.

I can pocket the bribes

and the airline tickets and hotel stay too!

I can hold up this graft!

All your money I will take!

I can fine your old trash can

and the loose trash bag!

And look! with my congestion pricing

I can charge you a toll!

I can add a surcharge to the fine

as I raise your property tax on a roll!

But that is not all.

Oh, no.

That is not all ...'

That is what the Adams said ...

then he fell on his bald head!

He came down with a bump

from up there in Turkiye

and Sally and I,

we saw the INDICTMENT fall!

And our fish came down, too.

He fell into legalized pot!

He said, 'Do I like this?

Oh, no! I do not.

This is not a good game,'

said our fish as he paid

no, I do not like tolls,

not one little bit!'

'Now look what you did!'

said the fish to Adams.

'Now look at this city!

Look at this! Look at that!

You fined us for our trash bag,

made us recycle old cake.

You taxed up our house

and you went on the take.

You SHOULD NOT be here

when our city's sanity is out.

you get out of this city!'

said the fish smoking legalized pot.

'But I like to be corrupt.

Oh, I like it a lot!'

said the Adams in the hat

to the fish hitting the pot.

'I will NOT go away.

I do NOT wish to go!

And so,' said the Adams in the hat.

'so

so

so ...

I will show you

another revenue stream that I know!'

And then he ran out.

And, then, with a corrupt grin,

the Adams in the hat

came back in with Otto's trash bin.

A big black plastic bin.

It was shut with a latch.

'Now look at this trick,'

said the Adams.

'Take a look at this new scam!'

Then he got up on a sanitation truck

with a tip of the trash bin.

'I call this game weigh-the-trash-bin,'

said the Adams.

'In your bin are two things

to charge you for now.

You will like these two things,'

said the Adams with a bow.

'I will open the latch.

You will see something new.

Two things to defraud you

Thing One and Thing Two.

These Things will not bite you.

They want to just rip you off.'

Then, out of the bin

came an RFID and a trash bill!

And they ran up so fast.

They said, 'How can we charge you?

Would you like to pay for the bin

and for your trash pickup by weight too?'

And Sally and I

did not know what to do.

So we had to pay

for both Thing one and Thing Two.

We paid for the bin as well the trash.

But our fish said, 'No! No!

This Things should not be

in this City! Make them go!

They should not be here

when the City's sanity is gone!

Put them out! Put them out!

said the fish high on legalized pot.

'Have no fear, stoned fish,'

said the Adams in the hat.

'These fees are good Things.'

and he raised the tolls.

'They are lame. Oh, so lame!

They have come here to make you pay.

They will raise tax revenue

on this wet, wet, wet day.'

'Now here is a game we like,'

said the Adams.

'They like to jaywalk,'

said the Adams in the hat.

'No! Not in the city!'

said the fish rolling his dispensary pot.

'No one should jaywalk

in a city! They should not.

Oh, the things they will bump!

Oh, the things they will hit!

Oh, I do not like it!

Not one little bit!

They Sally and I

saw them run across the boulevards.

We saw those jaywalkers

bump their butts on cars!

Bump! Thump! Thump! Bump!

Down the street and boulevard.

Those legalized jaywalkers!

They ran up! They ran down!

On the side of one car

we saw new dents!

The car hitting speed bumps

that are between speed traps.

Then we saw one jaywalker jump

in front of a car in it's tracks!

Then those jaywalkers ran about

with big bumps, jumps and kicks

and walking while texting and big thumps

and all kinds of recidivist tricks.

And I said,

'I do NOT like the way that they play!

If voters could see this,

oh, what would they say!'

Then our fish said, 'Look! Look!'

And our fish shook in withdrawal.

'Elections are on their way!

Do you hear?

Oh, what will voters do?

What will they say?

Will they not like it

to find corruption in this way!'

'So DO something! Fast!' said the fish.

'Do you hear!

I saw the voters!

The elections are near!

So, as fast as you can,

vote for something good!

You will have to get rid of

Otto trash bins and congestion tolls too'

So, as fast as I could,

I went after my ballot.

And I said, 'with my ballot

I can get them out I bet.

I bet, with my ballot,

I can get rid of the Adams yet!'

Then, I let down my ballot.

It came down with a PLOP!

And I had got rid of them! At last!

Those ridiculous taxes had to stop.

Then I said to the Adams,

'Now you do as I say.

You pack up your pardon

and you go far away!'

'Oh dear!' said the Adams.

'You did not like our scam ...

oh dear.

What a shame!

What a shame!

What a shame!

Then he folded up his pardon

in the Otto bin with the latch.

And the Adams went away

with an election funding match.

'That is good,' said the fish.

'He has gone away. Yes.

But the election will come.

And we will find the Cuomo mess!

And his harassment scandal was so big

and so deep and so tall,

we could not ignore it.

There is no way at all!'

And THEN!

Who was back in the city?

Why, the Adams!

'Have no fear of Cuomo,'

said the Adams in the hat.

'I can stand for re-election

and so ...

I will show you another

corrupt trick that I know!'

Then we saw him stand for re-election.

He really took the cake,

with his corruption, the pardon,

and the flight upgrades, and the hotel stays,

and the congestion tolls, and the fines,

and the speed cameras, red light cameras,

and the legalized pot, jaywalking.

We should put him away.

Then he said, 'That is that.'

And then he was gone

after we kicked out his ass.

Then sanity came in

we decided, we two,

'Congestion pricing is no fun.

Neither is paying for trash pickup too!'

And Sally and I did not know

who to vote for.

Should we look for

Another corrupt Mayor some more?

Should we vote at all?

Now, what SHOULD we do?

Well ...

What would YOU do

If you wanted sanity TOO?