ALBANY, New York (WWNY) – As utility bills skyrocket and New Yorkers get upset, Gov. Kathy Hochul is looking for changes to the state’s climate policy, which many have said will cause power bills to continue to go up.
“The Public Service Commission said 1.4 million people are in arrears, haven’t paid their utility bill in 60 days or more. That was in December. We finally went up to the cliff, and people are falling off of it,” said Sen. Mark Walczyk (R. -49th District).
It’s rising utility costs that have the governor rethinking how quickly the state needs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, an idea she mentioned in an opinion piece through news outlet Empire Report.
The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority found the state’s current plans to make renewable energy sources generate 70% of New York electricity by 2030 will cost more than $4,000 a year for upstate oil and natural gas customers, and gas prices could jump another couple of dollars.
How much change the governor is proposing isn’t known.
State Assemblyman Scott Gray says it’s the Climate Act that’s been contributing heavily to utility cost hikes in extra fees, and what the governor wants to do doesn’t help in the short term.
“People are struggling right now with costs, and I thought it would address what people are experiencing right now, so it’s a little underwhelming,” said Gray (R.-116th District).
The high utility prices are also affecting local schools. Sixteen local superintendents signed a joint resolution sent to the governor, fed up with rising costs taking funding away from critical school needs and asking for change.
Walczyk says Hochul’s plan to reduce ratepayer costs in the long term isn’t wholly bad, but believes this may be a bid for votes in an election year. Instead, he wants $2 billion collected by the state for climate change initiatives to be given back to customers as a rebate.
“NYSERDA has said that that money is ‘committed,’ but has provided nothing to us publicly about where the dollars are committed, what projects they’re going to, and what’s in the hopper, and every single month people are continuing, through their utility bills, to pump money into the clean energy fund,” Walczyk said.
Energy will likely be debated fully as the state tries to pass a budget by April 1.
Copyright 2026 WWNY. All rights reserved.