A Republican rival to Kathy Hochul blasted the governor’s stance in opposition to huge Con Edison fee hikes — calling it a “gimmick” as he blamed her green-energy insurance policies for the sticker shock.
Rep. Mike Lawler, who’s eyeing a run for governor in 2026, accused Hochul of attempting to cowl her butt by urging the state utility regulator to reject Con Edison proposed double-digit fee hikes regardless of raking in $67,000 value of marketing campaign donations from PACs and donors affiliated with the corporate.
“Governor Hochul’s crocodile tears over Con Edison’s proposed rate hikes, when her absurd clean energy mandates are forcing energy costs higher and higher, are fake and political,” Lawler advised The Put up.
“Like most everything she does, it’s a gimmick designed to deflect blame.”
Con Edison is asking the state Public Service Fee for the will increase for its 3.6 million prospects that might jack up electrical payments by 11.4% and ship fuel payments hovering 13.3% subsequent 12 months – will increase Hochul referred to as “intolerable” and “shocking.”
Hochul held a information convention in her Manhattan workplace Tuesday after days of mounting outrage from tapped-out New Yorkers who would pay $1,848 extra per 12 months in comparison with 5 years in the past if the proposal is OK’d by the PSC, packed along with her appointees.
Lawler despatched a letter to Hochul Tuesday, saying it’s the Local weather Management and Neighborhood Safety Act of 2019 championed by Hochul and her predecessor, Andrew Cuomo, that’s triggering utilities like Con Ed to push for fee hikes to adjust to inexperienced mandates within the regulation.
The regulation requires the state and its vitality producers and customers to ween off fossil fuels by slashing fuel emissions by 40% by 2030 and obtain 100% zero-carbon-emission electrical energy by 2040.
These insurance policies have “only made things worse for New Yorkers,” Lawler stated within the letter.
“The problem at hand isn’t the rate hike you’re correctly highlighting but the entire framework you’ve built that has made them inevitable,” Lawler stated.
“We need an all-of-the-above energy approach, which means using solar, tidal, nuclear, wind, and natural gas to help lower costs for New Yorkers,” he added in a separate assertion.
Regulated utilities reminiscent of Con Ed are beneficiant marketing campaign donors to the governor, like others depending on actions in Albany.
Con Edison’s political motion committees and staffers have pumped greater than $67,000 into Hochul’s marketing campaign coffers, a lot of it after she grew to become governor in 2021.
CEO Tim Cawley made two contributions totaling $10,000, state Board of Elections information present.
Hochul defended her document and push for affordability, and pointed out that Con Edison blamed New York Metropolis’s excessive property taxes as the first driver of the utility’s proposed fee hikes.
“As the governor cited yesterday, in each of her enacted budgets since taking office, she has reversed a long-standing trend in New York of siphoning revenue from ratepayers for government budget relief,” a Hochul spokesman stated.
Con Ed additionally cited prices related to the inexperienced vitality edicts in its rate-hike request.
Hochul’s marketing campaign crew additionally painted Lawler as a device of the fossil gasoline trade, noting he beforehand served as a lobbyist and government director of New Yorkers for Inexpensive Power, a gaggle that promotes pure fuel.
“Former big oil lobbyist Mike Lawler made thousands of dollars lining the pockets of the same companies Governor Hochul is holding accountable on behalf of New Yorkers,” stated Hochul marketing campaign spokeswoman Jen Goodman. “Instead of grandstanding, Mike should follow her lead and take on his former bosses in Washington.”
