ALBANY – Assembly Republicans want to tap into a dormant multi-billion-dollar “green” energy fund to give New Yorkers rebates and credits to offset their out-of-control electric and gas bills.
The plan is part of a package of bills unveiled by Republican lawmakers that would provide immediate relief and larger scale changes to lower costs in the long run.
“We are far past the point of theoretical discussions, 40-year targets and ‘guesstimates,’” Assembly Minority Leader Ed Ra (R-Nassau) told reporters in the state Capitol Tuesday.
“The reality is right here, right now. And it’s grim,” he added.
Con Edison is set to hike electricity bills on New York City customers by 3.9% this year, followed by a 3.3% raise in 2027 and a 3.2% raise in 2028.
The company’s natural gas prices will go up 2.4% this year, followed by eye-watering 7.8% and 5.6% hikes in 2027 and 2028, respectively.
The Assembly minority package calls for distributing $2 billion in checks from state coffers to lower and middle income households as a “rebate” to help defray the soaring bills, along with using unspent funds from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority Climate Investment Account at the end of the year to provide credits on customers’ bills.
The latter account has a balance of around $2.4 billion. It was supposed to be used to facilitate a controversial “cap and invest” program that sought to charge fossil fuel companies for carbon pollution — but Gov. Kathy Hochul paused the initiative last year in the face of backlash from environmental activists.
The GOP package would eliminate mandates of the state’s climate law such as banning gas appliances as well as forcing schools to convert their fleets to electric buses.
Assemblyman Scott Gray (R-Jefferson), ranking member of the legislative body’s Energy Committee, said the current plan in “unworkable.”
“Energy costs are simply too high and you don’t need a report to prove it. All you need to do is just open up your utility bill. Families feel it. Seniors on fixed incomes feel it. Small businesses trying to keep the lights on feel it,” Gray said.
“This is not an abstract issue. This is a kitchen table crisis,” he added.
The package comes a day after Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman released a campaign ad promising to halve New Yorkers utility bills as he runs against Hochul in this year’s race for governor.
A Hochul spokesperson dismissed the GOP’s plans for rebates and credits as political grandstanding.
“Governor Hochul has repeatedly said rates in New York are too high, which is why she has made energy affordability a top priority, having introduced a Ratepayer Protection Plan in January designed to hold utilities accountable and keep ratepayer costs down,” Hochul spokesperson Ken Lovett wrote in a statement to The Post.
“Rather than election-year political posturing, New York Republicans would be better off pushing their colleagues in Washington to stop imposing illegal tariffs that are driving up costs across the board and cease their endless fight against renewable energy that will bring needed power to the state,” the Hochul spokesperson added, citing price increases for renewable energy projects that the administration blames on Trump.
Even non-partisan experts like the state’s grid operator have warned that New York’s grid could face dangerous reliability issues if more supply isn’t brought online, as natural gas plants are phased out.