Energy costs are rising faster than wages across Western New York, and the companies providing electricity and gas are asking for more while delivering record profits to shareholders.
What’s happening right now
- NYSEG has filed for a 35% increase in electric delivery rates and nearly 40% for gas, to take effect May 2026. For a typical residential customer, that’s an extra $33/month on electricity and $34/month on gas
- National Grid already secured a three-year rate plan increasing electric delivery revenues by $167M (year 1), $297M (year 2), and $243M (year 3) — a cumulative 25%+ increase
- National Grid’s operating income rose from $231M to $295M in a single year. Net income: $198M for just nine months of 2025
- Meanwhile, 80,000+ low-to-moderate income households in Erie County are struggling to keep the lights on
What it means for District 11
- The county itself spends $38.8 million/year on energy through its Utilities Aggregation Fund — every rate increase hits the county budget directly and gets passed to taxpayers
- Homeowners in rural Southtowns communities with older housing stock, electric heat, and longer winters are hit hardest
- Farmers face rising operational costs that squeeze already thin margins
- Fixed-income seniors and disabled residents face impossible choices between heating and medication
What Erie County Is Doing Now
Credit where it’s due — the county has taken real steps:
- Utility Aggregation Fund: Saves approximately $1.5M on electric and $800K on gas annually through bulk purchasing
- ECLIPSE Program: Community solar for income-qualified residents, offering ~10% savings on electric bills
- Community Solar expansion: The county is expanding participation for county-owned facilities
These programs are good. They’re not enough.
What We Should Be Doing
1. Build a Multi-County Rate Case Coalition
When utilities file rate cases with the NY Public Service Commission, counties can intervene as parties. Most don’t — and a single county filing comments carries little weight. Erie County should lead a coalition with Niagara, Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, and Wyoming counties to file joint interventions. Combined, these counties represent hundreds of thousands of ratepayers. That’s leverage.
2. Demand Rate Symmetry and Automatic Refunds
When wholesale energy costs spike, utilities pass increases to customers immediately. When costs drop, retail rates lag — sometimes by months or years. The difference is pure profit.
The county coalition should push the PSC for:
- Automatic rate adjustment mechanisms that flow decreases to customers as quickly as increases
- Mandatory refund provisions when utilities over-collect relative to actual costs
- Profit-sharing triggers — when utility earnings exceed their approved rate of return, the excess should go back to ratepayers, not shareholders
3. Expand Aggregation and Community Solar Aggressively
- Extend aggregation savings to every eligible county facility — not just the ones currently enrolled
- Push to expand ECLIPSE eligibility beyond the current qualifying programs to reach moderate-income households who are above the threshold but still struggling
- Actively support towns and villages in District 11 in forming or joining Community Choice Aggregation programs to negotiate better supply rates
4. Transparency on Utility Profits vs. Rate Requests
Every rate case filing should be accompanied by a county-published fact sheet showing:
- The utility’s current profits and earnings trends
- The requested increase and its impact on a typical household
- How the increase compares to wage growth in the region
- What the utility is actually spending on infrastructure vs. shareholder returns
Residents deserve to see these numbers in plain language — not buried in PSC filings that run thousands of pages.
5. Advocate in Albany
The county should actively support state legislation that:
- Strengthens municipal authority to form and expand CCA programs
- Requires utilities to justify rate increases against their actual profit margins
- Creates automatic consumer protection mechanisms in rate structures
- Funds weatherization and energy efficiency programs at the county level to reduce demand
The Principle
Nobody is saying utilities shouldn’t earn a fair return. Infrastructure costs money. Grid upgrades are real.
But when a company posts nearly $200 million in net income in nine months and then asks families to pay 35% more, something is wrong with the system. And when county government is spending $38.8 million a year on energy that keeps getting more expensive, every taxpayer is affected — whether they realize it or not.
County government should be fighting for ratepayers at the PSC, building coalitions with neighboring counties, and using every tool available to bring costs down. Right now, most of that fight isn’t happening. It should be.