PSC Chair: Aging infrastructure, not Climate Law, biggest impact on utility bills

Albany — On Friday, a judge ruled the State of New York must issue regulations to meet the emissions reduction mandates as a part of New York’s 2019 Climate Law.

Meanwhile, Rory Christian, Chair of the Public Service Commission, which regulates the State’s utilities, and their cost proposals, appeared at another State Legislature hearing this week.

The Assembly hearing, which you can watch here, was titled “Protecting Residential Ratepayers from Certain Increased Energy Costs”, with some of the conversation discussing the impact data centers are having, and could have, on the grid, and in turn, energy bills.

During the hearing, Christian was asked if electrification (Climate mandates) costs were being factored into their projections for rates in the future.

Christian answered:

“So thank you for your question. There have been a number of newspaper articles and studies that have been conducted lately, and again, I want to stress, much of what’s out there is applicable on a nationwide level, but the discrete impacts on New York State are unique. So what you may be seeing and hearing may not necessarily apply to New York. I want to start with that and just make that clear. One of the things I pointed out in that, and I’ll repeat today, but I’ve done it every energy hearing, every Senate, every Assembly hearing, one of the biggest drivers of costs that we’re seeing on our rates is the fact that our system is old and it must be maintained. This requires significant reinvestment in things that ultimately are absolutely necessary for the day to day operation of our systems. I talk to utility representatives regularly. Some have electric poles that are over 100 years old, that if you were to look at them, look like a gopher chewed out the bottom. Those things must be replaced. And if you can imagine a high wind, high adverse weather scenario, there’s a safety risk associated with not upgrading those so much again, of the costs we’ve seen have been driven by the need to make those necessary system upgrades.”

Christian went on to say that other factors like inflation and interest rates have also driven costs higher.