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

Episode Date: March 2, 2026

The Trump administration’s $130 million purchase of a warehouse in Roxbury, New Jersey to convert into an ICE detention center is drawing opposition from local leaders who cite infrastructure limits and question the town’s ability to handle a facility of that size. Meanwhile, many New Yorkers are seeing unusually high Con Edison bills this winter, even without using more energy. Ian Donaldson of the Public Utility Law Project explains what is driving the spike and how the state’s Energy Affordability Program could lower monthly costs for eligible households.

Welcome to NYC now. I'm Jenae 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 eligible. take effect in March and could cut off access for thousands of low-income residents. The analysis comes as Mayor Zoramam Dhani expands its 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 levy 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 lead 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 were illegal. You took the money, government illegally. Now you just give it back. Advocates have filed motions in 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 indeed 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 Nimbies in this situation. You know, not in my backyard. 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 Inganemort and Don Fantasia have introduced legislation aimed at strengthening ICE's ability to detain people in the Garden State. Plus, there's a 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 Sherrill 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 long winter leads to high electricity bills for some New Yorkers. But there's relief if you qualify. That's after the break. If your con-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 crazy. I don't know. I want to go back to my country now. What country is that? Ecuador. Ecuador? Okay.

That's Louis-Moria. He lives in the Bronx and says his con-ed bill was at least $700 a month. winter. There's a state program that could lower some kind ed bills by up to $135 a month, but very few people are signed up for it. Are you familiar with the energy affordability program? No. 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 bucks off your bill. Yeah? Yeah. I never heard of 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, Janae. 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 kind of bills and, you know, doing a double take. Why are these bills so? had 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, you know, first and foremost, you know, 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 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 spiked pretty considerably. And that's a primary driving factor for why people are opening their con-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 bill 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 Con 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 Con 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 prices 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're getting from Con Edison, whether you're just an electric customer, whether you're electric end heating,

whether you just have cooking gas. That's the original program. The new program, 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,

$60,000 and they would be eligible for this program. And that program can provide a credit anywhere from a dollar all the way up to $135, depending on the household's 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 con-ed customer at coned.n-ed. N-Y-E-A-P.com. And essentially, it's going to ask you a couple 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 Con 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 con Edison bill. Are these kinds of bills the new normal or is there any other relief on the 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 the utilities. We also have a very active state legislature in New York.

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 it, 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 coal doesn't seek in or your heat doesn't seep out. You know, those little changes do you 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, Janae. It was a pleasure to talk to you. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WMYC. I'm Jene Pierre. See you next time.