When Yvonne Daniels opened her Con Edison bill this month, she was being charged more than $160 more than from the month before.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is a big difference. I said, ‘What the heck?’\u201d She said.<\/p>\n
Daniels, who lives in East New York, says rising utility costs are making it harder to keep up with everyday expenses, especially as food, gas and medical bills continue to climb.<\/p>\n
Her concerns come as Con Edison seeks to raise electric and gas rates starting this year, a proposal that has sparked pushback from lawmakers across New York.<\/p>\n
Nearly 100 state and local lawmakers recently sent a letter to the state Public Service Commission urging regulators to block the proposed increases. Among them is New York City Council Member Chris Banks, who represents parts of Brooklyn.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t address the affordability crisis by continuing to allow corporations to wreak economic havoc on our constituents,\u201d Banks said. \u201cSomething has to give.\u201d<\/p>\n
If approved, the plan would raise electricity bills by an average of 3.5% this year, followed by increases of 3.2% in 2027 and 3.1% in 2028. Gas bills would increase by an average of 4.4% this year, 5.7% in 2027 and 5.6% in 2028.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t afford to stay in New York,\u201d Daniels said. \u201cThat\u2019s why people are moving to other states.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement, Con Edison said, “We recognize affordability is a critical issue as costs rise across housing, transportation, food, and healthcare. That\u2019s why we\u2019ve expanded our energy affordability program and offer flexible payment options to help ease the burden. We work every day to balance the investments needed for resilience and reliability with customer costs while supporting the communities we serve.\u201d <\/p>\n
The company also noted that the current proposal is significantly lower than its initial request last year, which would have raised electric bills by 19% and gas bills by 13%.<\/p>\n
The Public Service Commission said it will review the lawmakers\u2019 letter, but noted that most parties involved in negotiations supported or did not oppose a joint proposal that reduced Con Edison\u2019s original rate request by 87% for 2026.<\/p>\n
Still, for customers on fixed incomes, even smaller increases are too much.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re stretched to the max,\u201d said Judith Huggins, who lives in East New York. \u201cEvery penny we get is used just to survive.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Public Service Commission has not yet announced when it will make a final decision on the proposed rate hikes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Yvonne Daniels opened her Con Edison bill this month, she was being charged more than $160 more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,1168,8372,46124,9,24,63,46123,26797],"class_list":{"0":"post-100617","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-brooklyn","9":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","10":"tag-brooklyn-news","11":"tag-con-edison","12":"tag-east-new-york","13":"tag-electric-bills","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-rate-hikes","18":"tag-utility-bills"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}