The NY Assembly might trigger massive gas bill hikes. They must change course

Almost five years after New York passed the landmark Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, the state is woefully short of meeting the law’s targets for reducing climate pollution, in large part due to entrenched status-quo legislators’ cravenness and refusal to take the necessary steps for implementing the law. And their inaction isn’t just damaging our climate, the continued reliance on polluting and increasingly expensive fossil fuels also poses an enormous burden on our health, well-being, and energy affordability.

This unfortunate attitude was on full display during negotiations between the Assembly, the Senate, and the Governor leading up to the recent passage of the state budget. Despite support from Gov. Kathy Hochul, the State Senate, the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic & Asian Legislative Caucus, and 76 Assembly cosponsors — a majority of the chamber — some Assembly Democrats undemocratically sided with fracked gas companies and blocked the popular NY Home Energy Affordable Transition (HEAT) Act from being included in the budget.

And this was not the first time. The Senate had passed the bill last year, only for the Assembly to kill it.

Heating homes and buildings with oil or gas is one of the largest sources of pollutants in New York that harm the climate and our health, often with disproportionate impacts. These deadly pollutants accumulate more readily in dense neighborhoods with residents of modest means. Similarly, smaller dwellings suffer higher concentrations of indoor pollution from cooking with gas, which has been associated with myriad health risks, including childhood asthma.

“Natural” gas is mostly fracked methane, which is a climate super pollutant, and gas utilities often claim that they are advancing the state’s climate goals by imposing massive rate hikes on their customers for replacing leak-prone pipes. But all they’re advancing are their profits at the cost of everyday New Yorkers. New York’s climate Scoping Plan emphatically recommends strategic planning and eventual downsizing of the gas network, not wastefully laying brand-new pipes with 100-year lives and price tags of up to $6 million per mile.

Antiquated state laws are forcing New Yorkers to pay more and more to fund profits for monopolistic gas utilities from subsidized new hookups and mostly unnecessary new pipes to expand the gas network or to renew its aging segments. Billions of dollars of such wasteful investments have contributed substantially to the looming National Grid gas rate hike of nearly $65/month for an average NYC and Long Island customer by 2026, which comes on the heels of a similar $48/month increase for Con Edison customers between 2023 and 2025.

One provision of the NY HEAT Act kickstarts the implementation of the state’s longtime goal of limiting households’ energy burdens to 6% of earnings. Other provisions modernize the state’s outdated utility laws that are leading to higher heating costs and carbon pollution. For example, the so-called “100-foot rule” allows utilities to heavily subsidize fracked gas hookups and raise existing customers’ rates to cover the costs. Similarly, “obligation to serve” rule in the current law prevents customers on an end-of-life section of the gas network from collectively choosing modern clean and cost-effective heating options in lieu of exorbitant pipe replacement.

The NY HEAT Act would amend these to allow utilities to provide cheaper and clean heating alternatives at no cost to customers by redirecting the savings from the avoided new gas pipes – a win-win for energy customers and the environment. However, with blatant disregard for people and the planet, the state assembly reaffirmed its beholdenness to the oil and gas industry and left gas utilities to continue exploiting the state's archaic laws unchecked to lock in enormous profits at the cost of exacerbating everyday New Yorkers’ energy burdens.

The Assembly leadership already shoulders some responsibility for the unprecedented National Grid and Con Edison gas rate hikes by blocking the NY HEAT Act last year. The next round of rate hikes would be devastating because fewer customers would bear the growing costs of the gas distribution network due to defections driven by health concerns, rising gas bills, and generous financial incentives for heat pumps and pollution-free electric cooking appliances.

Acquiescing to a destructive, exploitative industry raking in record profits at the cost of the constituents they’re sworn to serve is always a bad policy choice for elected officials. In an election year, it’s also bad politics. With just a few more working days left in this year’s legislative session, time is running out for the so-called People’s House to do good by the people of New York.

Anshul Gupta is the policy and research director at New Yorkers for Clean Power.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: NY residents may face massive gas bill hikes if Assembly doesn't act