Title: Why Con Ed Bills Are So High and Who Qualifies for Relief

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Janae Pierre: Welcome to NYC Now. I'm Janae Pierre. Is your Con Edison bill higher than usual these days, or is it just me? We'll get into what's driving these costs and who qualifies for assistance. First, here's what's happening in our area. At least 230,000 New Yorkers could lose their food stamp benefits this month under new federal rules. A report from The Center for New York City Affairs says changes to SNAP eligibility take effect in March and could cut off access for thousands of low-income residents. The analysis comes as Mayor Zohran Mamdani expands his focus on affordability, even as federal healthcare cuts and tax changes are expected to widen income inequality across the city.

Advocates are urging people to check their eligibility and file any required paperwork before benefits lapse. New York area businesses are still waiting to find out if they'll ever see refunds for the tariffs the Supreme Court struck down last week. The High Court says President Trump can't use emergency powers to levy sweeping tariffs, but it also isn't ordering restitution or establishing a way for businesses to recover what they've already paid. Victor Schwartz is a New York City wine importer and one of the lead plaintiffs in the Supreme Court case. He says the government knows exactly what it owes.

Victor Schwartz: The highest court in the land has ruled. These tariffs not that they were a bad idea or something like that, they were illegal. That's it. Slam dunk. Drop the mic. These were illegal. You took the money, government, illegally. Now you just give it back.

Janae Pierre: Advocates have filed motions in lower courts to push the process forward, but there's no clear timeline. Now to New Jersey. The Trump administration's plan to buy a warehouse and turn it into a detention center in Roxbury is raising some red flags and spewing mixed messages between local leaders and residents. The township's all Republican Council has voted unanimously against the project, citing limits on water and sewer capacity and warning local services are not structured to absorb the impact. It all started when the Washington Post reported in January that they had obtained a list of sites that DHS was eyeing as potential detention centers, one of which was this warehouse in Roxbury.

Mike Hayes: When that report came out, local residents were outraged and the local leadership passed a resolution saying they were against this as well.

Janae Pierre: That's WNYC's Mike Hayes. A few weeks after that bombshell from the Washington Post, Mike reported that ICE indeed bought the property but in the days after, ICE would deny that that was true.

Mike Hayes: The local leaders in Roxbury said the owner of the warehouse in fact told them no deal had been made.

Janae Pierre: After some back and forth, Mike says the deal became official last week. According to Morris County property records, the Trump administration is paying a whopping $130 million for the warehouse. That's twice what the property is worth. The purchase capped two chaotic weeks of contradictory statements from the federal government. Still, though, Mike says local leaders, including Republican Roxbury Mayor Sean Pattillo, plan to continue to fight this. The fight is leading to some name calling. Mike says they're being accused of being NIMBYs in this situation, you know, not in my backyard.

Mike Hayes: Local Republicans basically are saying, we support ICE, we support detention centers, just not in our town.

Janae Pierre: The Roxbury detention center would hold up to 1,300 detainees. Some other Republicans who represent this part of New Jersey in the State Assembly have also spoken out against the site. At the same time, Mike says Assembly members Mike Inganamort and Dawn Fantasia have introduced legislation aimed at strengthening ICE's ability to detain people in the Garden State. Plus, there's another layer to this.

Mike Hayes: Local residents also say that Republican State Senator Anthony Bucco has a conflict of interest here. Along with being a state senator, he's also the town attorney in Roxbury, and he says from day 1 he's opposed the detention center there and is part of the fight trying to prevent it.

Janae Pierre: Mike says residents have called for Bucco's resignation from his township attorney role, citing his support for pro ICE legislation at the state level.

Mike Hayes: He called these accusations against him "political theater" and shared a letter from the state's ethics council clearing him of any conflict of interest.

Janae Pierre: Though Senator Bucco is cleared of conflict, Mike says there's another concern. Senator Andy Kim and other opponents say the town simply doesn't have the resources to handle a detention center. Speaking on ABC, he questioned whether the town can manage a facility of that size.

Senator Andy Kim: This is a town with only 42 police officers, a volunteer fire department. They do not have the resources or capabilities of handling this facility.

Janae Pierre: Governor Mikie Sherrill has also vowed to use every tool available to challenge the plan. DHS has not yet filed new environmental applications for the project. Coming up, a long winter leads to high electricity bills for some New Yorkers, but there's relief if you qualify. That's after the break.

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If your Con Ed bill felt unusually high this winter, well, you're not alone. Many New Yorkers are seeing sharp increases even without changing how much heat or electricity they use.

Louis Morea: It's been going up and up and up and crazy. I don't know. I want to go back to my country now.

Janae Pierre: What country is that?

Louis Morea: Ecuador.

Janae Pierre: Ecuador?

Louis Morea: Yes.

Janae Pierre: Okay.

Janae Pierre: That's Louis Morea. He lives in the Bronx and says his Con Ed bill was at least $700 a month this winter. There's a state program that could lower some Con Ed bills by up to $135 a month, but very few people are signed up for it. Are you familiar with the Energy Affordability Program?

Speaker 6: No.

Janae Pierre: It's a program that can help New Yorkers who fall into a certain category pay their bill. You could at least get $135 off your bill.

Speaker 6: Oh, yeah?

Janae Pierre: Yes.

Speaker 6: I never heard of it.

Janae Pierre: What is driving these costs, and why is help not reaching more people? We're joined now by Ian Donaldson from the Public Utility Law Project. He's here to explain what's going on and how more New Yorkers can take advantage of the Energy Affordability Program. Hey, Ian.

Ian Donaldson: Hi, Janae. How are you today?

Janae Pierre: I'm doing pretty good. Wish my bills were lower, though.

Ian Donaldson: Certainly here as well.

Janae Pierre: Let's start with what people are feeling. People are opening their Con Ed bills and doing a double take. Why are these bills so high this winter?

Ian Donaldson: It's certainly a crunch. Ratepayers across the state are really feeling this right now. It's a threefold situation where, first and foremost, the way that the energy system works, New York, primarily on your utility bill you have two different sides. You have the delivery side and the supply side of your bill. On the supply side of your bill, this is basically just the cost of the energy, the electricity or natural gas flowing into your homes.

Unfortunately, this winter, because of how cold it's been, because of the weather, and because the way that our energy system is interconnected with other states, supply prices are really high right now. The cost of natural gas, which is what New York uses primarily to generate electricity, has spiked pretty considerably. That's a primary driving factor for why people are opening their Con Ed or any other bill across the state and wondering, hey, why is this so high?

Janae Pierre: Thanks so much for breaking that down for us because I have to be honest, when I look at my bill, I just look at how much it costs. For people who say their usage didn't really change but their bill still jumped, how does that happen? What are they actually paying for?

Ian Donaldson: The other piece to this is that Con Edison did just receive a rate increase approved from the Public Service Commission. They filed for a rate increase a little over a year ago. There's a process in New York called the rate case that PULP and other stakeholders, the State Department of Public Service as well as other consumer and environmental groups can intervene.

When PULP goes into these rate cases our foremost concern is affordability for residential customers. That is what we center our advocacy around. Ultimately, the commission did approve a rate increase for Con Edison that the first rate hike did go into effect this past month. Unfortunately, even if your usage didn't change, you are going to see your bill go up a little bit because the rate increase was approved and then, again, because supply prices are so high.

Janae Pierre: I briefly mentioned at the top a state program that could help lower bills for some people. Can you talk a bit about the Energy Affordability Program and tell us how it works?

Ian Donaldson: There's two programs. There's the regular existing Energy Affordability Program and then there's the new Enhanced Energy Affordability Program which is just starting to enroll people as of last month. I'll start with the original one, as we like to call it. This one is geared primarily towards low-income households. To qualify for this, you need to be enrolled in a qualifying benefit program.

For example, if you receive the home Energy Assistance Program, SNAP, Public Assistance, there are a number of programs that would deem a household eligible for this, but it can provide a credit from anywhere from $3 all the way up to $190 depending on your household income, as well as what type of utility service you're getting for from Con Edison, whether you're just an electric customer, whether you're electric and heating, whether you just have cooking gas. That's the original program. The new program, again, the Enhanced Energy Affordability Program, this one has a larger income threshold.

It actually reaches much further beyond the typical low-income programs and is available to more moderate-income households. For example, a household of four in New York City, they could have a household income of up to I think it's $160,000 and they would be eligible for this program. That program can provide a credit anywhere from $1 all the way up to $135 depending on the household's income and how many people are in the household.

Janae Pierre: Okay, so, for someone listening right now who thinks that they might qualify, what does applying actually look like? Is it just a straightforward deal?

Ian Donaldson: Yes. There is an online application that can be accessed if you're a Con Ed customer at coned.nyeeap.com, and, essentially, it's going to ask you a couple questions. There are some documents that you will need, primarily being a utility bill from the last three months. It has to have your name, your account, the account holder's name, the account number, as well as the address that you're receiving service. Then you do need to provide some form of income proof. That could look like a pay stub, that could look like a Social Security or pension statement. Something that documents your income as well as the income of everybody else in the household, if they're income earners too.

Janae Pierre: My producer and I were out talking with New Yorkers, asking them simply, how much is your Con Edison bill? How much are you paying in utilities? I heard a lot of people paying more than $300 a month on just a Con Edison bill. Are these kinds of bills the new normal or is there any other relief on the horizon? I know this Energy Affordability Program is something for folks, but what if people don't fall into those qualifying categories?

Ian Donaldson: I will say that this is something that, again, I think stakeholders across the board are thinking about. We're really grateful to the governor that this year in her executive budget, I think she released eight umbrella proposals that really touched on energy affordability as well as the utilities. We also have a very active state legislature in New York. There's over 30 bills I think at the moment that PULP is monitoring that would impact energy affordability. The other point that I'd like to make is that there are other financial assistance programs out there.

There's the Home Energy Assistance Program, which is available for low-income households. There's also the Empower Plus Program. This is a third bucket that we like to talk about at PULP is energy efficiency. That is one thing that even renters could do to try and lower their energy bills is make small improvements to make their homes more energy efficient. That could look like even changing out the light bulbs for something that's more efficient, taping plastic over your windows so that the cold doesn't seep in or your heat doesn't seep out. Those little changes do actually make a meaningful difference in people's bills.

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Janae Pierre: Yes, definitely. That's Ian Donaldson from the Public Utility Law Project. Thanks a lot, Ian.

Ian Donaldson: Thank you so much, Janae. It was a pleasure to talk to you.

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Janae Pierre: Thanks for listening to NYC Now from WNYC. I'm Janae Pierre. See you next time.

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