New Yorkers are all too familiar with sky-high gas bills. Every month, we’re forced to pay increases on our bills for heat, hot water and cooking gas while National Grid rakes in profits. They would like us to believe that these outrageous increases to our monthly bills are because of climate laws or some green transition. That’s a lie.
The real reason? National Grid wants to pour billions of dollars of our money into aging, toxic fracked gas infrastructure. Meanwhile, the Public Service Commission (PSC), meant to be New York’s utility watchdog, approved a massive three-year gas hike in 2024, ignoring tens of thousands of public comments opposing the increase.
But it’s not too late for Governor Kathy Hochul and the PSC to reverse course and stop National Grid from locking us into decades of fossil fuels and skyrocketing bills. The PSC is reviewing National Grid’s long-term plan right now, a process that began in 2020. This was a measure to hold National Grid accountable for imposing a block on new gas hookups to pressure the state into approving an unnecessary pipeline. They falsely claimed it was lying to the public so that they could jack up rates for a higher profit.
Now, National Grid is back with more lies, grossly inflating the demand for gas and blaming the transition to clean energy for its price hikes. In the process, it has undermined the point of the PSC proceeding: to produce a proactive long-term plan that complies with the state’s climate law and protects New Yorkers. Their playbook? Delay, deny and cash in.
At the center of National Grid’s plan is its polluting liquefied gas (LNG) facility in North Brooklyn. The company plans to spend over $1 billion through 2033 to keep this outdated, dangerous plant on life support. As the costs of this facility are passed on to New Yorkers, we see our gas bills rising, not because we’re “going green,” but because we’re not.
The Greenpoint polluting liquefied gas facility sits on toxic land adjacent to Newtown Creek, one of the most polluted waterways in the country. It endangers the health of nearby residents who already suffer higher rates of asthma and heart disease due to decades of environmental racism. New York State has even designated this land so harmful to people’s health and the environment that the state government has prioritized a process to ensure it gets cleaned up.
Doubling down on this facility during a climate emergency is reckless. Continued investment in the facility is not about reliability – it’s about extracting money from communities who can least afford it while locking us into fossil fuels that are breaking down the climate.
We no longer need gas for heat and hot water, as clean, affordable alternatives exist right now. Last year, electric heat pumps outsold gas boilers in the United States with nearly four million units sold. They work in cold climates, offer lower bills and eliminate indoor air pollution from gas stoves and boilers. Yet National Grid is hell-bent on convincing you that fracked gas is the only reliable option – even as the rest of the world phases it out – because its profits depend on keeping that lie alive.
Governor Hochul talks a good game on climate, but the behavior of the PSC, which she oversees, says otherwise. Approving National Grid’s gas plan would betray millions of New Yorkers facing soaring bills and pollution.
Curbing carbon emissions isn’t optional – laws like Local Law 97, 154 and the All-Electric Building Act make it mandatory. National Grid treats clean energy like a fringe idea but it is the only real path to a healthy, affordable, climate-safe future.
The stakes are clear – and so is the fix.
New Yorkers shouldn’t pay for a dirty future we don’t need. The PSC must shut down the Greenpoint LNG facility, and the governor must redirect billions to electrification, efficiency, union jobs, and genuine affordability. Brooklyn residents can send comments to the PSC today.
Governor Hochul and the PSC must choose: protect New Yorkers or National Grid’s profits. For the good of our climate, residents, and wallets, they must stop National Grid’s gas expansion plan and invest in clean energy and communities, not fossil fuels.
Kim Fraczek is the director of the New York nonprofit Sane Energy Project.
