New York Daily News
James R. Copland
Public employee unions wield considerable power in New York politics, but “progressive” politicians continue to show their willingness to sell out government workers — and city citizens and taxpayers — to signal their fealty to the left’s litmus-test issues du jour. Such was the case last month, when Mayor de Blasio announced he would be waging “the fight against climate change” on two new fronts.
The mayor’s first silly idea is to sue big oil companies. His lawsuit is destined to fail, much like its predecessors. But it will generate lots of headlines for the ambitious politician, which is of course its object.
The mayor’s second idea — announced jointly with City Controller Scott Stringer — is to divest the city’s pension funds from fossil fuel-focused energy companies by 2022.
That’s a much bigger deal: Though the mayor’s lawsuit theater is a waste of city resources (and a nuisance to the companies involved), the de Blasio-Stringer divestment scheme threatens to compromise city finances to a significant degree…
