Advocates rallied for the New York HEAT Act on Friday.
Screenshot courtesy of Renewable Heat Now
A bill idling in the state legislature could save Brooklynites more than $100 on their monthly utility bills, advocates said at a rally outside Brooklyn Borough Hall on Friday.
The HEAT Act, which was first introduced in 2022, would amend laws that effectively subsidize the installation of new gas lines across the state and cap monthly utility bills in an effort to meet carbon emission reduction goals laid out by the Climate Leadership and Protection Act.
Under current regulations, advocates say, utility companies can continue to increase their prices as they build new fossil fuel infrastructure.
“I’m here to tell you that I received more emails from constituents about the HEAT ACT than any other bill,” said Assembly Member Phara Souffrant-Forrest, who represents parts of Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Bed-Stuy and Crown Heights.
National Grid has proposed a plan that would raise customer bills by an average of $30 per month, and ConEdison’s prices are slowly increasing under an approved rate hike.
“That’s completely unaffordable for my constituents who are already struggling for food, housing, and childcare,” Souffrant-Forrest said. “We simply can’t keep asking people to pay more, and more, and more for a dirty gas system that’s killing them.”
Laura Shindell, an organizer with Food and Water Watch, said Brooklynites have seen the effects of climate change in the form of extreme weather play out in their own borough in the form of smoke from last summer’s wildfires in Canada and extreme heat and flooding.
“All of that is no problem for greedy utility companies who are raising rates and using the profits to expand the same gas system that causes climate change,” she said. “ConEd and National Grid are phasing in rate hikes that could cost some families up to $50 or more a month.”
The HEAT Act would limit…
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