Hochul must veto the 100-foot rule bill

Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan once quipped, “You are entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts.” » No phrase is more apt to describe the arguments made by State Senator Liz Krueger and Assemblywoman Jo Anne Simon in favor of their natural gas hookup bill, currently sitting on Governor Hochul’s desk.

While Hochul and sensible lawmakers have come to better understand what climate mandates will cost voters, advocates like Krueger and Simon have pushed back. Instead of seeking to ban gas, they decided to step on gas. The Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline was approved, the all-electric construction mandate was blocked, and affordability triumphed as the energy issue of the day.

This brings us to the discussion of the 100 foot rule in the law. Maintaining current policy is good for jobs, good for consumers and excellent for our economy. The current rule allows a consumer within 100 feet of a gas line to connect to the system free of charge. If this rule were abolished, new customers would face additional costs of up to $10,000.

According to data compiled by AARP, New Yorkers already pay some of the highest utility bills in the country and some of the highest electricity prices per kilowatt. These bills are driven not by utility profits, wholesale energy costs, or 100-foot rule subsidies, but by energy taxes, fees, and mandates passed by state regulators and politicians like Krueger and Simon.

Taxes and fees make up about a quarter of your utility bills. The Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act of 2019 has already added 10% to energy bills, and those numbers will only increase.

At the same time, New York faces a housing crisis, with low inventory and rising prices driven by high demand. Repealing the 100-foot rule will further increase the cost of building a home in New York State. Energy choice should not only apply to those who are wealthy enough to afford it.

The facts are that Krueger and Simon voted for or supported “electrification at all costs” policies that have led to rising energy and housing bills for New Yorkers over the past decade. Why would we trust anything they say now?

Thousands of union and non-union jobs in New York are supported by gas infrastructure. Ending the 100-foot rule and discouraging gas hookups will put many of these people out of work. The bill’s sponsors said these people could magically become electricians overnight and no jobs would be lost. Well, if you think a gas worker can turn into an electrician without a massive investment of time and money, then we have a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn.

Statewide, 53.5% of our electricity is produced by burning natural gas. The more buildings we convert to electricity, the more gas we will burn. The New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) projects that we will need to triple our generating capacity by 2040. Since New York is not meeting any of its renewable energy goals and it takes at least a decade to build nuclear power, what do Krueger and Simon think will power these new plants? You guessed it, natural gas!

New York is on the cusp of exciting possibilities. In Syracuse, Micron is building a massive, advanced manufacturing plant that will employ thousands of people and require vast amounts of new energy. As data centers look for new locations to build, they will look for locations with abundant, inexpensive energy supplies from a variety of fuel sources.

Now is not the time to raise costs and threaten jobs by passing harmful new energy mandates, pushed by the usual activists and politicians who have already presided over the largest population exodus in our state’s history.

We agree with the Governor that New York State needs to adopt all of the above approach to its energy future. We urge him to veto the 100-foot rule bill and maintain his support for an affordable and pragmatic energy future for New York State.

Ortega is the executive director of New Yorkers for Affordable Energy.