Cost Overload

Their comments range from angry to anguished, some typed in all caps and punctuated with exclamation points.
An 80-year-old retiree who said his charges from Central Hudson are outpacing last year's 2.5 percent increase in his Social Security check is among the 182 people submitting comments in response to the utility's latest request to increase the rates it charges to deliver electricity to homes and businesses.
A single mother who said she lived with two children in a 700-square-foot house while earning $1,400 a month bemoaned the surge in her monthly bill from $100 to more than $200. "If the rates keep going up, I will have to freeze to death together with my teenage sons," she wrote.
For the homeowners, renters and business owners who have been railing against Central Hudson's rising costs online and in public hearings before the state Public Service Commission, the frustration goes beyond the company's latest request to raise rates. Its pending three-year plan is lower than the company's original request but would still add $18 per month during that period to the average customer's bill.
Those customers, along with residents served by New York state's other utility companies, are paying the most in at least 25 years for electricity, according to the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. Utility bills statewide averaged 25 cents per kilowatt-hour in March, compared to 19 cents in March 2015. Nationwide, energy bills are forecast to continue rising through next year, according to the federal Energy Information Administration.
"It's unbearable for customers," said Assembly Member Jonathan Jacobson, a Democrat whose district includes Beacon and other areas served by Central Hudson. "We get complaints all the time about their costs and their service."
Extreme Weather Powers Demand
Cooling, heating rises as aid disappears
by Brian PJ Cronin
The spikes in energy bills come as Americans feel the increasing effects of climate change, including more frequent "heat dome" events like the Highlands experienced last week when temperatures reached into the high 90s.
Those events spur even greater electricity usage as residents crank up air conditioners and fans to sustain themselves.
Don't expect a trade-off from warmer winters, however. Climate change is also manipulating the polar jet stream, pulling colder air from Canada south in the winter. This past winter, those polar-vortex events allowed freezing temperatures to blanket the Highlands, adding higher heating bills to the higher cooling costs residents faced during the summer.
These bills aren't just a source of frustration and anxiety anymore. They're literally a matter of life and death. Between 1999 and 2023, 21,518 deaths recorded in the U.S. were attributed to heat as the underlying or a contributing factor, according to a study published in Aug. 2024 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The total number of deaths nationwide doubled from 1,069 in 1999 to 2,325 in 2023, according to the study. In New York state, extreme heat is the leading cause of weather-related deaths, said the state Department of Environmental Conservation in a report published in June 2024.
Shortly after taking office, the Trump administration fired the entire federal staff responsible for the Low Income Heating Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which helps more than 6 million families avoid utility shut-offs. A representative from New York's Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance said that the state had already received its LIHEAP funding for the year, but next year is in doubt.
Part of this year's funding is going toward the state's Cooling Assistance Program, which will help approximately 18,000 households purchase either an air conditioner or a fan. The application window for the program is closed, but New Yorkers who suffer from asthma may still be eligible. See dub.sh/cooling-help for more information.
Customers face costs on two fronts: the rate utilities bi...