Soaring utility bills have Senate Republicans demanding a public hearing on a proposal they say could return $3 billion to New York ratepayers.
Republican members of the Senate Energy and Telecommunications Committee want to advance legislation sponsored by Sen. Tom O’Mara that would send unspent clean energy funds back to households as utility bill credits.
O’Mara, along with Sens. Mario Mattera and Mark Walczyk, sent a letter to Committee Chair Kevin Parker calling for a hearing on the bill, S.8461A. The three lawmakers also filed a formal petition under Senate rules that allows one-third of committee members to request a public hearing unless a majority rejects it.
The proposal would allow unspent money in NYSERDA’s Climate Investment Account and funds held by utilities under the Clean Energy Fund to be returned directly to ratepayers.
According to the 2025 fiscal year budget and financial plan, NYSERDA holds a surplus of more than $2 billion. Projections show that figure could reach $3 billion in future years. In addition, utilities are required to hold about $770 million in ratepayer funds for future use under the Clean Energy Fund.
O’Mara said those funds should go back to the people who paid them.
“Should New York State just keep on asking ratepayers to bear the burden of what’s become, at best, a questionable climate agenda?” O’Mara said. “It seems to me that carrying at least $3 billion of ratepayers’ funds from year to year would be better returned to the ratepayers given the significant increases in the cost of electricity in New York, over a 50% increase from January 2020 to October 2025.”
He also called for “greater public accountability, disclosure, and transparency” on how the funds are collected and distributed and said ratepayers “at least deserve a public hearing like the one we’re calling for to help determine the most effective and fair way to move forward.”
The push comes after a recent NYSERDA memo outlining projected costs under the state’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. The memo indicated gasoline prices could rise to about $5.25 per gallon and that upstate households could see heating bills increase by more than $4,100 per year.
Mattera, the committee’s ranking Republican, said lawmakers need to act.
“As New Yorkers continue to discover the true cost of Albany Democrats’ energy mandates, which a NYSERDA memo last week clearly outlined, it is time for New York to face reality and help its residents,” Mattera said. He added that the conference wants an immediate hearing and called for repealing what he described as unfunded mandates in the climate law.
Walczyk said families “can no longer afford to wait for relief” and described the hearing as “a necessity” to ensure funds collected from ratepayers are used to reduce financial strain.
In their letter, the senators wrote that a hearing would assess “the availability of off budget funds collected from ratepayers as an immediate remedy in the form of ratepayer utility bill credits to effectively return to ratepayers’ unspent monies which were collected from them.”
If approved, the bill would provide bill credits to utility customers statewide using the surplus funds.
The committee has not yet scheduled a hearing on the measure.
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