As New Yorkers sweltered in a holiday heat wave that could feel as high as 115 degrees, Mayor Zohran Mamdani turned his attention to the strained energy grid and made a request of those living in the nation’s most-populated city: Set your air conditioning unit to 78 degrees.
“Welcome to socialism,” former South Carolina governor and Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley wrote on X.
“Show us your thermostat, commie,” failed Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt posted.
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Criticism of Mamdani’s advice swirled around social media, especially from accounts held by conservatives, but the democratic socialist’s energy-saving advice isn’t as politically charged as many claim. In fact, the Trump administration’s Department of Energy website boasted similar recommendations as recently as June, though that page has since been taken down and now shows an error message as of July 3.
Republicans suggest 78 degrees, too
An archived version of the “Home Cooling Systems” page on the Department of Energy’s website taken June 19 reads, “The Department of Energy (DOE) and ENERGY STAR recommend finding a comfortable indoor temperature during the day and increasing it by 7°F when no one is home. Start with an indoor temperature between 75-78°F during the day.”
That recommendation would put the suggested temperature when no one is home between 82 and 85 degrees.
Now, the same URL has the headline, “Page not found.”
During a heat wave in the first week of July in 1999, New York City Republican Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s office released a heat advisory that read, “Set the control no lower than 78 degrees F. (A 75 F setting uses 18% more electricity and a 72 F setting uses 39% more electricity). This setting allows for sufficient cooling while still conserving electric power.”
And this week, Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz reacted to Mamdani’s 78-degree request, posting on X, “In a first-world country, you could turn on the A/C.” But in Texas, Republican leadership and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas have repeatedly recommended the energy-saving measure of setting thermostats to 78 degrees or higher when home.
What’s happening with the energy grid
The National Weather Service warned of “dangerous, record-breaking heat” for much of the southern and eastern United States through July 3, with the heat concentrating in the eastern part of the country through the rest of the weekend.
The agency estimated 159 million Americans would be under extreme or major heat risk on Friday.
“This kind of heat stresses aging infrastructure,” Jon Gordon, a senior director with Advanced Energy United, previously told Straight Arrow. “This is what we all worry about. Keeping the lights on when the system is stressed.”
On Thursday, New York Independent System Operator, a nonprofit tasked with ensuring New York’s power system reliability, issued an energy watch “due to a decline in operating reserves.” As of midday Friday, the grid was operating as normal, according to the organization.
Meanwhile, Con Edison, which powers New York City, has asked residents across multiple neighborhoods to conserve additional energy as they repair outages affecting more than 80,000 residents since the start of the heat wave.
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