Utility giant National Grid’s request for whopping double-digit electric and gas rate hikes upstate is another reminder of the grim impact of the state’s “transformative” Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, pushed into law by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2019.
This latest round — the highest increases the utility has proposed in some 35 years — comes atop warnings of looming blackouts this summer.
Last May, National Grid proposed a hefty 17% hike for Big Apple customers while blaming the state’s climate targets and inflation. While regulators ponder that ask, the utility now seeks to up upstate electric and gas prices, 15% and 20%, respectively.
In all, National Grid and the state’s other utilities last year sought over a billion dollars in rate hikes to fund state-mandated “climate” upgrades.
The politicians will no doubt stretch out the increases to reduce sticker shock, but the math means your already-insane bills are headed up, up, up.
And the climate law puts no limit on what residents can be forced to pay to achieve its targets.
The Cuomo law “mandates” that New York get 70% of its power from renewable energy by 2030 — and 100% by 2040 — and cut CO2 emissions 40% by 2030 and 85% by 2050.
The state is nowhere close to achieving any of that — but it will burn tens if not hundreds of billions (from your taxes as well as your utility bills) in trying, even as these policies already make blackouts near-certain this summer.
Gov. Hochul finally pulled the plug on Cuomo’s congestion-pricing plan. When will she and the Legislature’s leaders admit the truth about the disgraced ex-gov’s energy insanity?