Hochul’s Utility Hikes Begin

On top of all other rate hikes, New York City and Westchester consumers will be forking over more to Con Edison to fund Gov. Hochul’s green-energy schemes.

Con Ed’s preliminary deal with the state Department of Public Service will spike home gas bills by 20% over three years and electric bills 12%, The City reports. The cash will go for new transmission lines to handle greater reliance on electricity that’s supposed to come from wind and solar plants as the state cracks down on use of oil and gas for heating and cooking.

In a gesture at fairness, Hochul’s budget offers $200 million in utility-bill discounts for low-income New Yorkers. Earn more, and you’ll have to eat the hikes; even if you qualify, you’ll have to do the paperwork.

More green pain: Con Ed expects its New York City customers will also have to pay more thanks to Local Law 97 mandates for city buildings to cut their emissions.

And everyone in the state who now cooks with gas will have to pay more if Hochul’s ban on gas stoves goes through: Electric stoves cost more to power (more so, if expensive and unreliable solar and wind are producing the power).

Oh, and electric heat will run you more than 40% more than gas heat.

All this is just a taste of the half a trillion or more in new infrastructure (transmission lines, alternate-energy plants and so on) needed for the Hochul (actually, CuomoHochul) scheme to make New York a carbon-neutral state. Virtually all of which, under current plans, will have to be funded via your utility bills.

As we’ve said before, it’s only a matter of time before this fantasy collapses under its impossible pricetag and general impracticality. The only question is how many years of needlessly higher bills New Yorkers will have to pay before reality kicks on.