{"id":349522,"date":"2026-09-17T19:26:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T19:26:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/349522\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T19:26:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T19:26:15","slug":"gov-hochul-expands-electric-gas-bill-discounts-to-middle-class-families","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/349522\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov. Hochul expands electric, gas bill discounts to middle-class families"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gov. Kathy Hochul Thursday said state regulators will expand energy affordability guidelines that seek to limit costs<\/a> to 6% of household incomes.<\/p>\n

As energy prices soar, the Public Service Commission, which regulates electric and natural gas suppliers in the state, will start monitoring utilities\u2019 compliance with a new energy affordability index<\/a>, which aims to keep customers\u2019 combined bills below 6% of income \u2014 3% for electricity and 3% for gas.<\/p>\n

Previously, the energy discount only applied to low-income households, but now will also apply to up to 2.5 million middle-income families<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have made it a top priority to ensure we keep the lights on and costs down for all New Yorkers and the PSC\u2019s action today builds on those efforts,\u201d Hochul said.<\/p>\n

Utilities that exceed the target would be subject to additional state oversight<\/a> and could get dinged when they seek rate hikes from the PSC, Hochul said.<\/p>\n

Hochul\u2019s push to keep a lid on fast-rising utility costs<\/a> is a big issue as she seeks reelection to a second full term in November. She holds a healthy lead in polls<\/a> over Republican Bruce Blakeman, the Nassau County executive.<\/p>\n

\"Gov.Gov. Kathy Hochul launches a new statewide enrollment drive to help New Yorkers get a monthly discount on their utility bills through the State\u2019s Energy Affordability Program on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026, in New York City. (Susan Watts \/ Office of Governor Kathy Hochul)<\/p>\n

An initial affordability score for each utility, calculated with median area incomes, will be created by February and final reports by next summer.<\/p>\n

Results of the score will be linked to scores used in executive and senior management compensation, potentially giving top brass an incentive to keep price hikes in check.<\/a><\/p>\n

Hochul this week also announced energy rebate checks up to $200 will be sent to 8.2 million households across New York State starting on Monday.<\/p>\n

The payments are designed to cushion ratepayers against price increases attributed to the rising price of energy since the start of the Iran War.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Kathy Hochul Thursday said state regulators will expand energy affordability guidelines that seek to limit costs to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349523,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1586,7442,21845,6079,426,80348,9,11,10,49,51,50,37778],"class_list":["post-349522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-affordability","tag-electricity","tag-gas","tag-inflation","tag-kathy-hochul","tag-middle-class-families","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-public-service-commission"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349522","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=349522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}