{"id":420963,"date":"2025-12-03T03:46:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T03:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/420963\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T03:46:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T03:46:11","slug":"rising-utility-bills-deepen-citys-affordability-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/420963\/","title":{"rendered":"Rising utility bills deepen city&#8217;s affordability crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As temperatures drop in the city, New Yorkers are turning up the heat, and advocates say another Con Edison rate increase couldn\u2019t come at a worse time.<\/p>\n<p>They argue the cost of staying warm, or just keeping the lights on, is already out of reach for too many families.<\/p>\n<p><b>What You Need To Know<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A City Comptroller report finds nearly one in three New Yorkers is energy insecure and struggling to meet basic utility needs<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Con Edison has already scaled back what would have been a double-digit hike. The proposed increase is 2.8% for electricity and 2% for gas<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li>The rate proposal now heads to the Public Service Commission, which has the final say<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cThese are not optional things. These are necessary things. Energy is a human right,\u201d Michael-Luca Natt, an organizer with the Sunrise Movement, said.<\/p>\n<p>Energy costs even entered the conversation inside the Oval Office.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we\u2019re sending fuel at a much lower price than it was a year ago, which is true, we have to get Con Edison to start lowering their rates,\u201d President Donald Trump said during a meeting with Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf electeds can talk about this, then so can we,\u201d Durga Sreenivasan, founder of Equal Planet, said.<\/p>\n<p>And there\u2019s data behind the concern. A City Comptroller report finds nearly one in three New Yorkers is energy insecure and struggling to meet basic utility needs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s not something that 30% of New Yorkers should have to choose between: keeping the lights on or a doctor\u2019s visit,\u201d Natt said.<\/p>\n<p>Con Edison has already scaled back what would have been a double-digit hike. The proposed increase is 2.8% for electricity and 2% for gas.<\/p>\n<p>But advocates say even the reduced version lands on top of years of steady increases.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s where this money is going \u2014 to fill someone\u2019s pockets,\u201d Sreenivasan said.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement following the president\u2019s comments, Con Edison wrote in part, \u201cWe welcome the opportunity to partner with the mayor-elect on solutions that make New York affordable for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn a city that\u2019s already unaffordable to live, any more costs to everyday New Yorkers is still too much,\u201d Natt said.<\/p>\n<p>The rate proposal now heads to the Public Service Commission, which has the final say.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As temperatures drop in the city, New Yorkers are turning up the heat, and advocates say another Con&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":420964,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,13565,7448,21400,405,403,50,5226,5225,5228,5227,80,52,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,5284],"class_list":{"0":"post-420963","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-app-local-state-politics","10":"tag-app-top-stories","11":"tag-louis-finley","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-newyork","16":"tag-newyorkcity","17":"tag-ny","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-politics","20":"tag-top-stories","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-united-states-of-america","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-usa","27":"tag-vod"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115653586710586729","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}