If you’ve ever gotten your bill from National Grid and been like “damn, how can my bill be that higher when I Uber Eats seven nights a week,” you may very well be right. That’s because many New Yorkers may actually be paying for other people’s gas and unfortunately not even know it.
The way things work currently is that when building owners need a new gas hookup, it’s an out-of-pocket expense if the building is within 100 feet of an existing gas main line. But the money’s gotta come from somewhere, right? And, well, it comes from us. In fact, the costs of these new connections are spread across the entire utility customer base.
The practice is referred to as the “100-foot rule,” and it’s something that has been going on for decades. From 2017 to 2021, New Yorkers spent $200 million per year on connecting new homes to the gas system. That’s nearly 170,000 new customers to the system receiving their gas hookup on our dime.
But legislators just passed a bill to put a stop to this, referred to as bill A8888 in the Assembly and S8417 in the Senate. To be clear, the bill wouldn’t take away the ability to connect to gas, or force anyone to stop using gas in their homes. Rather, it would prevent new gas hookups to come out of the pockets of those not responsible.
Heastie stated:
This legislation will keep families from having to pay their hard earned money to subsidize the cost of new gas hookups.
And the bill comes at the right time, as NYC has been on a mission to break away from fossil fuels. In 2019, New York passed the landmark Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, which set a goal of cutting economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030. Advocates have also been pushing the NY Home Energy Affordable Transition (HEAT) Act, which would do the following:
- End the 100-foot rule
- Ensure energy affordability (this would place a 6% of household income cap on energy bills for low-income customers)
- End the obligation for utilities to serve anyone looking to become a customer (this would give utilities more flexibility in transitioning communities from natural gas to renewable energy)
As the HEAT Act has still yet to become law, sponsors have begun to focus solely on the measure that’s easiest to implement: ending the 100-foot rule. Since legislation has passed it, it will now await Governor Kathy Hochul’s review. Laura Shindell, New York state director for the advocacy group Food and Water Watch, is hopeful Hochul will approve it.
Richard Schrader, director of New York government affairs at the Natural Resources Defense Council, stated:
This step is just the beginning. To fully align New York’s gas utility system with its climate and affordability goals, lawmakers must pass the broader reforms in the NY HEAT Act. These include tools to enable an affordable strategic transition of the gas system and support the deployment of neighborhood-scale building electrification projects that are already proving cost effective and overwhelmingly popular where implemented.
Beginning next year, most new buildings with seven stories or fewer must be all-electric, as per New York’s All-Electric Building Act, which was passed in May 2023. Larger buildings will be required to comply beginning in 2029. The 100-foot rule bill complements this.