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

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Welcome to NYC now.

I'm Janay 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.

But 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 Zora Mombani

expands his focus on affordability

even as federal health care 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 levee 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 leaf plaintiffs in the Supreme Court case.

He says the government knows exactly what it owes.

The highest court in the land has ruled.

These tariffs, not that they were a bad idea

or something like that, they're illegal.

That's it, slam dunk, drop the mic,

these are illegal.

You took the money government illegally.

Now you just give it back.

Advocates have filed motions and 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.

When that report came out,

local residents were outraged

and the local leadership passed a resolution

saying they were against this as well.

That's WNYC's Mike Hayes.

A few weeks after that bombshell from the Washington Post

Mike reported that ICE in D bought the property,

but in the days after,

ICE would deny that that was true.

The local leaders in Roxbury said the owner of the warehouse

in fact told them no deal had been made.

But 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 kept two chaotic weeks

of contradictory statements from the federal government.

Still though, Mike says local leaders,

including Republican Roxbury Mayor Sean Patillo,

plan to continue to fight this.

And the fight is leading to some name calling.

Mike says they're being accused of being

nimby's in this situation.

You know, not in my backyard.

Local Republicans basically are saying,

we support ICE, we support detention centers,

just not in our town.

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.

But at the same time,

Mike says assembly members Mike and Ganamort and Don Fantasia

have introduced legislation

and bet strengthening ICE's ability

to detain people in the garden state.

Plus, there's another layer to this.

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 one,

he's opposed the detention center there

and is part of the fight trying to prevent it.

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.

He called these accusations against him

quote, political theater and shared a letter

from the state's ethics council

clearing him of any conflict of interest.

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.

I mean, 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.

Governor Mikey Cheryl 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 law 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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Few things are as uplifting as the greatest moments in sports,

and nothing brings us together quite like team USA

at the Olympic Winter Games.

From NBC Universal's iconic storytelling

to the innovative technology across Exfinity and Peacock,

Comcast brings the Olympic Games home to America,

sharing every moment with millions.

When team USA steps onto the world stage,

we're not just watching.

We're cheering together.

This winter, we're all on the same team.

Comcast, proud partner of Team USA.

If your Khan 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.

It's been going up and up and up and up on crazy.

I don't know.

I want to go back to my country now.

What country is that?

Ecuador?

OK.

That's Louis Moria.

He lives in the Bronx and says his Khan Ed Bill

was at least $700 a month this winter.

There's a state program that could lower some Khan Ed

Bill's by up to $135 a month, but very few people

are signed up for it.

Are you familiar with the energy affordability program?

It's a program that can help New Yorkers

who fall into a certain category pay their bill.

You could at least get like $135 off your bill.

Oh, yeah?

Yeah.

I'll never handle it.

So 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.

Hi, Jenny.

How are you today?

I'm doing pretty good.

Wish my bills were lower, though.

Certainly here as well.

So let's start with what people are feeling.

I mean, people are opening their Khan Ed Bill's

and doing a double take.

Why are these bills so high this winter?

It's certainly a crunch.

And you know, repairs across the state

are really feeling this right now.

It's kind of a threefold situation

where first and foremost,

the way that the energy system works, you know, New York

primarily on your utility bill,

you have two different sides.

So you have the delivery side

and that's 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 kind of flowing into your homes.

And unfortunately, this winter because of how cold it's been,

because of the weather,

and because the way that our energy system is sort of interconnected

with other states,

unfortunately, supply prices are really high right now,

the cost of natural gas,

which is what New York uses primarily

to generate electricity has, you know,

spiked pretty considerably.

And that's a primary driving factor

for why people are opening their Khan Ed

or any other bill across the state

and wondering, hey, why is this so high?

Yeah, 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.

But for people who say their usage,

you know, didn't really change,

but their bills still jumped.

How does that happen?

Like, what are they actually paying for?

Yeah, absolutely.

So, you know, the other piece to this

is that Khan 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.

You know, there's a process in New York

called the rate case that, you know,

pulp and, you know, other stakeholders,

the State Department of Public Service

as well as other, you know, consumer

and environmental groups can intervene.

You know, when pulp goes into these rate cases,

you know, our foremost concern is affordability

for residential customers.

And that kind of is what we center our advocacy around.

But ultimately, you know, the commission

did approve a rate increase for Khan Edison

that the first rate hike did go into effect this past month.

So unfortunately, you know,

even if your usage didn't change, you know,

you are going to see your bill go up a little bit

because the rate increase was approved.

And then again, just because supply practices are so high.

I briefly mentioned at the top of 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?

So there's two programs.

There's the regular existing energy affordability program.

And then there's the new enhanced energy affordability program,

which is it came about, you know,

it's 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.

So for example, if you receive the home energy assistance program,

snap public assistance, you know,

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 know, you're getting 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,

the again, the enhanced energy affordability program.

This one is, it has a larger income threshold.

So it actually reaches much further beyond,

you know, the typical low income programs

and is available to more moderate income households.

So, you know, 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,

you know, eligible for this program.

And that program can provide a credit anywhere

from a dollar all the way up to $135,

depending on the households income

and how many people are in the household.

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?

Yeah, so there is an online application

that can be accessed if you're a connet customer

at connet.nyeap.com.

And essentially, it's going to ask you a couple of 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.

And then you do need to provide some form of income proof.

So that could look like a pay stub,

that could look like a social security or pension statement,

something that documents, you know,

your income as well as the income of everybody else

in the household if they're income earners too.

You know, my producer and I were out talking with New Yorkers

asking them simply how much is your kind Edison bill?

You know, how much are you paying in utilities?

And I heard a lot of people paying more than $300 a month

on just a kind Edison bill.

Are these kinds of bills the new normal

or is there any other relief on their horizon?

I mean, I know this energy affordability program

is something for folks,

but what if people don't fall into those qualifying categories,

you know?

Yeah, no, I will say that, you know,

this is something that again,

I think stakeholders across the board are kind of 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 like the utilities.

You know, we also have the very active state legislature

in New York, you know, there's over 30 bills,

I think at the moment that pulp is monitoring

that would impact energy affordability.

And the other point that I'd like to make is that,

you know, there are other financial assistance programs

out there, so like there's the home energy assistance program

which is available for low income households.

There's also the empower plus program.

And this is kind of like a third bucket

that like we like to talk about at pulp is energy efficiency.

That is one thing that, you know,

even renters could do to try and lower their energy bills

is just make, you know, small improvements

to make their homes more energy efficient.

That could look like even just like changing out the light bulbs

for something that's more efficient,

taping plastic over your windows

so that the cold doesn't seek in

or your heat doesn't seep out.

Yeah.

You know, those little changes do actually make

a meaningful difference in people's bills.

Yeah, definitely.

That's Ian Donaldson from the Public Utility Law Project.

Thanks a lot, Ian.

Thank you so much, Janay.

It was a pleasure to talk to you.

Thanks for listening to NYC now from WNYC.

I'm Janay Pierre.

See you next time.

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