New York Energy Company raises disconnect as it seeks 11% price increase | New York

An energy company seeking to get on the utility bill New York In the first six months of 2025, 11% of Manchester City left over 88,000 households, suggesting that even if the climate crisis drives extreme temperatures, households struggling to pay for rising energy costs will hit.

Con Edison, a monopoly utility that powers the nation’s largest city and neighboring Westchester County, nearly 2.5% of customers departed from nearly 2.5% between January and June this year, two-thirds of the number of unpowered homes in 2024. Five out of five homes remain unchanged, with no electricity for at least a week.

The utility closed 16,327 homes by June 25. New York was hit by its first heat wave between June 23 and 25, destroying daytime and nighttime records In Central Park And drive Emergency room visit.

New York is one of the most expensive places to electricity, and in recent years, families have shouldered higher than inflationary prices and most importantly unaffordable housing, and the wider cost of living caused by the living crisis is due to the common pandemic.

The death related to heat is about 3% of all deaths from May to Septembermaking New York the second deadly city after Phoenix, Arizona.

Over 40% of New Yorkers have defaulted on their debts over the past five years, and at least 23% of households have been disconnected once – leaving families unable to access refrigerators, internet, cooking facilities, heating or cooling until they can find money to reconnect to the money.

According to Black and Latino New Yorker, it is more than twice as likely to be white residents to fall behind and nearly eight times more likely to be utilities. 2024 Poverty Tracker/Robin Hood Report About energy insecurity.

“Disconnection is an effective recovery strategy for Con Edison, but it is also completely inhumane. This has caused damage to the family and the lives of some people,” said Diana Hernandez, an associate professor of social sciences at Columbia University.

“People want to pay bills, but for too many families they can’t afford it.”

Almost 16% of New York homes (one in sixth of residential customers) lag behind their energy bills by the end of 2024, with debt totaling $948 million, according to data submitted by the utility to state regulators.

But as Con Edison intensified disconnection over the past six months, debt fell to $840 million by the end of June, New Yorkers lagged behind in their bills.

At the current rate, Edison could disconnect 150,000 households by the end of the year, the largest household in any utilities in the country, said energy economist Mark Wolfe.

“Energy is unbearable, so people are lagging behind. The disconnected figures show that Con Edison is actively fighting and life will become increasingly difficult for the poor in New York,” said Wolf, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association (NEADA).

Neada researchers, state directors for federally funded low-income families vitality The Assistance Program (LIHEAP) organizes debt and disconnect data submitted to the regulator, the New York Public Service Commission.

There is no population classification, but people of color, families with children, renters in small buildings, and people relying on medical conditions such as electronic devices such as oxygen distributors, and Bronx residents are more likely to experience energy poverty and thus get out of the disconnect and thus discover the 2024 Robin Hood Report.

“Termination of services is a last resort, and we do it only after extensive publicity and exhaustion of all other options … Nearly two-thirds of residential customers in the owed are in the payment plan. Our customers must pay bills to maintain safe services and the most reliable system in the United States.”

The spokesperson added that most customers reconnected 80% within 24 hours in a week.

Nationally, an estimated one-third of households experience energy poverty – due to economic difficulties, there is no access to sufficient amounts of electricity and other energy sources. State with low-income families, people of color and the least social safety nets are disproportionately affected, and millions of households are often forced to assess food, medicine, energy and other essentials

All over New York State and the country – a series of regulations prevented some families from being shut down on very hot or cold days, but millions of people were simply not protected.

Like most parts of the United States, New York is vulnerable to extremely high and low temperatures, and climate crisis is becoming more frequent and more intense.

The number of caloric deaths has been increasing over the past decade, with 525 people in New York City dying prematurely each year for caloric-related reasons – the vast majority of which are caused by the impact of high temperatures and humidity on existing medical conditions. The latest data from the city’s Department of Public Health.

Due to past and current structural racism, the economy, healthcare, housing, energy and other disadvantaged people who benefit from white and people of color, calories kill twice as many black New Yorkers as white residents, twice as many white residents, and twice as many white residents as those of white residents. Report found.

Most deaths occur in the house without the use of running air conditioners. Citywide, 11% New Yorkers don’t have air conditioning at home, but are much faster in low-income communities of color. One study found that one in five renters do not use air conditioners due to costs.

Despite improvements in protections in recent years, it is not enough to conceal the rise in energy prices, rents and inflation rates for households, or the increasingly cruel heat and humidity.

According to its website, Con Edison currently pauses disconnection on the hottest and coldest days, according to the National Weather Service forecast. In the summer, the utility will not disconnect from the day before the heat index or day (taking into account the temperature when humidity is taken into account) – it is expected to reach 90F (32.2C) in Central Park, one of the darkest parts of the city. It also paused disconnection for two days after the 90F calorie index day.

However, some communities in the Bronx and upper Manhattan have less temperatures, where there are fewer trees, access to air conditioning, more black and Latino residents, and most heat deaths, exceeding Central Park 6 to 8 degrees due to the heat island effect due to the heat island effect According to a 2022 study.

Energy poverty is a chronic problem for many New Yorkers.

New York State is the largest recipient of Liheap, a long-term underfunded bipartisan federal program that helped about 6 million households master energy bills and survive the narrowness Complete cuts from Trump’s 2026 budget.

In the fiscal year 2024-25, New York received $379 million (almost 10% of the Liheap fund), and Gov. Kathy Hochul invested an additional $35 million to supplement January’s heating expenses after the months of winter depletion.

During the summer, the LIHEAP program only covers the cost of air conditioning units and installation of low-income households eligible for New York, not energy costs. City plans can provide tested loans to working families who are owed.

This has helped lift millions of Americans out of poverty due to statewide moratoriums and debt forgiveness programs, as well as child tax credits, and promotes food stamps, among other federal programs. But now that the social security program in the Covid-era era has been terminated, a recent focus group held by Hernandez and her colleagues found that people are still working to restore and ration energy use because they are very concerned about bills rising.

“The city is getting better at advocating for families that are disproportionately affected by disconnection, but this is the bucket of water where should be,” said energy justice expert Hernandez. “There are 88,000 families who are disconnected who have done everything they can to get money but still can’t get into trouble. It shows that families are being fully exposed.”

In New York, however, energy costs will become higher.

A large bill by Trump would make electricity production more expensive, causing residents to pay an average of $140 a year to 2030. Through energy innovation analysis. The bill also cuts benefits such as Snap (food stamps) and Medicaid, which will put further pressure on millions of families.

Meanwhile, Con Edison has been criticized in city and state politicians including Hochul and City Audit Officer (Chief Finance Officer) and former mayoral candidate Brad Lander for a 11% increase in gas power and 13% increase in gas, a fee that regulators are currently considering. The proposed electricity tax rate by Con Ed could raise the average household bill by $372. (The utility supplies gas to 1.1 million households.)

“The rising temperatures, rising power rates, the possible termination of the federal LIHEAP program and the increased risk of cases have significantly increased the heat-related illness and the rise in deaths in New Yorkers,” Rand told the Guardian.

“There is a need to be a strategy so that people can pay their bills – but it is inhumane to punish poor people by cutting off electricity, especially in extreme heat or winter. It’s a form of debtor prison.”

Con Edison did not respond to criticism of the proposed rate hike, but said it offered a $311 million bill discount to revenue-eligible customers last year, and regulators (PSCs) recently expanded their energy affordability programs to help more vulnerable residents.