ReviewHochul

Two problems: the number and the metric. On price, the most recent Empire Center analysis of EIA data puts New York's average residential electricity price at 29.93 cents per kWh in May 2026 — third-highest in the nation and 62.3 percent above the U.S. average, not 70 percent. On bills, the gap is much smaller than either figure: New York households consume well below the national average, so a high per-kWh rate does not translate into a bill 60-70 percent above average. Blakeman is directionally right that New York electricity costs far exceed the national average, and the price gap is large and growing (prices were 12.1 percent higher than a year earlier). But the 70 percent figure overstates the current price gap, and applying it to "bills" rather than rates overstates it substantially more. (Merged from a duplicate row logged the same day: Blakeman has paired the 70% figure with a claim of "48 rate increases" under Hochul — that count is not sourced to any public tally, and his framing of "one every month she's been governor" does not fit the arithmetic; Hochul took office in August 2021, about 60 months before the remarks. The 70% figure was accurate earlier in the cycle — an Empire Center release dated May 14, 2026 carried exactly that headline.)