We can’t afford another rate hike

In June, my colleagues and I in the Legislature made a significant stride towards lowering energy bills by repealing the 100-foot rule, a decades-old giveaway to utilities that forces existing customers to pay more on their energy bills. Ending this mandate was a victory for fairness, and an important step toward rebalancing an energy system that too often works for utilities instead of New Yorkers struggling to make ends meet.

Governor Hochul now has the chance to sign this bill into law and end the 100-foot rule. Thankfully, she has supported ending the mandate before. Now, as utilities continue to take advantage and charge New Yorkers more, she has a chance to make a real difference for those
in need.

Last month, millions of Upstate National Grid customers were the latest to see their energy bills would once again go up after the State approved a three-year increase to raise residents’ bills by an estimated $600 every year. Con Edison customers in the Bronx are likely next, as they brace for a proposed $2 billion rate hike that would increase electric bills by 11 percent and gas bills by 13 percent.

But utilities aren’t just raising rates — they’re also cutting off those who can’t afford to keep up. In the Bronx, nearly one in three households already struggle to pay their energy bills. Meanwhile, Con Edison has shut off service to nearly 90,000 households in the first half of this year alone.

These are not one-time issues, either. My constituents already saw Con Edison raise their bills by more than $20 every month in 2023, and before that by 13 percent in 2020, while other utilities are doing the same.

Many of these increases are thanks in part to archaic rules like the 100-foot rule, which allows new houses within 100 feet of an existing gas line to connect to the system for free. That means instead of putting the responsibility for new gas hookups on homeowners or utilities, other ratepayers foot the bill — costing more than $200 million every year.

The 100-foot rule made more sense decades ago when natural gas expansion was an improvement over oil-powered heating. But today, it pushes utilities to expand the gas system that’s already too expensive — and lets them cover the high costs by raising our bills.

This is not sustainable. New Yorkers pay some of the highest utility rates in the nation, and there is simply no way we can afford to continue paying 10, 12 or 15 percent increases
every year.

Solving our energy affordability crisis won’t happen overnight. It will require major investments in affordable clean energy infrastructure and passing stronger consumer protections like my bill to create the Office of the Utility Consumer Advocate. But ending the 100-foot rule is something we can do right now.

Thankfully, we’ve done the hard part and repealed it in the Legislature. Now, with the Governor’s signature, we can take another meaningful step toward a fairer, more affordable energy system that works for all New Yorkers.

Jeffrey Dinowitz is the Assemblyman for the 81st District, representing the northwest Bronx.