GOP: Stop stockpiling money for green energy products and give it back to consumers

ALBANY — From the campaign for governor to the halls of Albany, Republicans are focusing on a pocketbook issue they think will resonate with voters:

Your rising utility bill.

Tuesday arrived with their latest salvo from newly minted Assembly GOP leader Edward Ra: Stop stockpiling tax revenue and surcharges for future energy projects and instead issue $400 rebates to consumers.

"We view this as a crisis situation," Ra (R-Garden City South) said at a news conference at the State Capitol on Tuesday.

Tax receipts are rolling into state coffers at higher-than-expected levels, the Hochul administration and others have noted. Plus, energy and utility agencies are sitting on more than $2 billion in surplus funds, collected over years but not earmarked for anything soon.

"It’s hard to see the [price] spikes we’re having and see people struggling to pay their bills and not do something," Ra said.

They also want to end mandates for shifting the state’s power grid to green/renewable energy, which they say are driving up consumers’ costs.

A leading Democrat called the approach "short-sighted," especially the opposition to green projects.

"The best bang for the buck is pooling our resources to get the best outcome for the most people," Sen. Kevin Parker (D-Brooklyn), chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, said.

He listed updating the state’s power grid and improving transmission, advancing sustainable energy projects and helping homes and businesses transition from sources such as oil burners to heat pumps and other energy-efficient systems.

"Those things will have a greater impact on the larger issue as well as for individual families," Parker said.

But some Democrats are on board with issuing some sort of rebate or credit to customers.

Assemb. Didi Barrett, a Poughkeepsie-area Democrat and chair of the Assembly Energy Committee, wrote a letter this month urging legislators and Gov. Kathy Hochul to return to "ratepayers a meaningful portion" of the funds currently in escrow for future energy projects.

Lawmakers said Tuesday the issue will be part of the mix as they try to reach a state budget by the April 1 fiscal deadline.

On the campaign trail, Republican Bruce Blakeman has launched a statewide ad effort promising to radically slash utility bills.

The Nassau County executive, who is challenging Democrat Hochul, has said he’d terminate mandates for phasing in green energy to replace fossil fuels and reduce state taxes on energy.

Hochul has said New York’s goal of 70% of its grid power coming from renewable sources isn’t attainable and probably should be adjusted. But she’s also blasted the Trump administration for imposing tariffs on trade and trying to block wind power projects.

The push to cut costs might resonate with voters as the campaign progresses, said Lisa Parshall, a political scientist at Daemen University in Buffalo.

"Polling last year showed that while a majority of New Yorkers support the climate goals, they are also concerned with the cost (too far too fast, or too great a cost)," Parshall wrote to Newsday in an email. She added that part of the effort is about Blakeman shoring up his conservative base.

By Yancey Roy

yancey.roy@newsday.com@yanceyroy