HEAT Act could save struggling New Yorkers $164 per month
Many New Yorkers are struggling not just economically, but environmentally as well.
The cost of living is the single most important issue facing a majority of state residents this election cycle, a poll by Siena College found. This comes at a time where inflation has raised the price of just about everything more than 3 percent since this time last year, according to the Labor Department’s consumer price index.
Given the ongoing climate crisis as well, residents of areas like Uniondale find themselves at the intersection of a combined economic and climate emergency.
According to a report by New York Renews — a coalition of over 370 environmental, justice, faith, labor, and community groups advocating for the reform of climate law — nearly one in four Long Islanders, or 23 percent, have a high energy burden, meaning they spend more than 6 percent of their annual income on energy bills.
And now, with the Long Island Power Authority’s approved 11.6 percent rate hike this year, the average customer’s light bill is now almost $200 a month — the fourth highest in the nation.
“Long Island can’t wait,” Assemblywoman Taylor Darling said outside the county legislative building in Mineola on March 7. There, alongside residents and advocates, Darling unveiled new research showing that these “energy-burdened families” could save a great deal of money on their utility bills if the state’s proposed Home Energy Affordable Transition, or HEAT, Act is included in the state budget proposal for fiscal year 2025.