an exclusive interview on \u201cInside City Hall.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\nHochul pitched her energy rebate checks, which will soon to hit 8.2 million New Yorkers\u2019 mailboxes, and touted expanded eligibility requirements for the state\u2019s Energy Affordability Program that gives discounts on monthly bills.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not giving up on my quest to drive down our costs but also holding utilities accountable,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Formerly limited to low-income families, like those on food stamps, since January, household heads can apply if they\u2019re below the area median income.<\/p>\n
Like in the five boroughs, single tax filers making up to $113,000 can apply.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, in Queens\u2019 Howard Beach neighborhood, GOP candidate and Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman promised he\u2019ll slash energy bills in half.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will get rid of the green energy scam, and we will open up our own natural gas resources that we have here in abundance in New York state,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a big election year scam. Kathy Hochul thinks we\u2019re stupid and we don\u2019t know that she\u2019s trying to buy votes because she knows that her utility bills have skyrocketed,\u201d Blakeman added.<\/p>\n
He said a big part of the plan includes eliminating New York\u2019s ban on the oil and natural gas extraction process known as fracking.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll be able to cut bills significantly by opening up the Marcellus shale, by doing both, increasing our supply of natural gas,\u201d Blakeman said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe could see relief within the first six months in office. First of all, it\u2019ll take about two months for them to become operational immediately,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n
Also a big player in this year\u2019s election: President Donald Trump \u2014 who has his own national rebate plan aimed at keeping control of Congress.<\/p>\n
\u201cWouldn\u2019t you rather have $5,000 in your pocket than $100?\u201d Blakeman said.<\/p>\n
So, what\u2019s the difference?<\/p>\n
Hochul says her ideas are a \u201ccontinuation of what I\u2019ve done for years.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also described her last phone call with Trump.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s probably been a little over a month,\u201d she said, since the pair last spoke.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe talked a little about Penn Station. We talked about my nuclear ambitions. I asked him at the time if he could leave the Haitians alone, that [Temporary Protected Status] was expiring,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd that didn\u2019t go very far.\u201d<\/p>\n
Besides focusing on her own reelection, she\u2019s keen on politically kneecapping a Hudson Valley congressman, who is favored by Trump.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year, we\u2019re going to take the seat that will soon be formerly held by Mike Lawler. Cait Conley will win that seat. I\u2019m very confident of that,\u201d Hochul said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York\u2019s high energy prices are becoming a focal point ahead of Election Day. Both the Democrat and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[109,116,25,8889,9,24,55,54,49,12,56,112,108,87,27,200],"class_list":["post-347924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-app-local-state-politics","tag-app-ny-state-of-politics","tag-app-top-stories","tag-bernadette-hogan","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-news","tag-ny","tag-ny-state-of-politics","tag-ny-state-of-politics-blog","tag-politics","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347924","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=347924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}