Long Island Life & Politics (Hank Russell)TIER 3High
Blakeman's counter-message to the week's $1B POWER rebate rollout: at a Howard Beach press conference he called the up-to-$200 checks "peanuts" and "a shell game," said Hochul "thinks we're stupid" and is "trying to buy our votes," and repeated his claim of 48 rate hikes and a 50% ($700-$1,000 per resident) increase since she took office. He said only 30% of a bill pays for electricity usage and criticized upstate wind and solar spending. New pledges on record: cut residents' energy bills in half and expand natural-gas supply. Blakeman's 48-hike and 50% figures are his campaign's numbers and are not independently verified here; Hochul's office puts state utility-bill relief since 2021 at $6.6B plus the $1B checks. The Hochul campaign responded by tying Blakeman to Trump-era gas prices and saying he opposes tariff relief, car-insurance cuts and universal child care.
Governor Kathy Hochul (press release)TIER 1
Implementation step on the FY27 budget's Ratepayer Protection Plan. The PSC's Sept. 17 initiating order gives interim guidance: each utility's index = median annual residential electric or gas spend divided by State Median Income (Area Median Income for Con Ed and National Grid downstate). Utilities must use it in upcoming rate cases and in first annual affordability filings due Feb. 1, 2027; the Commission's first annual affordability report is due July 1, 2027. Above the 6% threshold the PSC may appoint an Affordability Monitor to review cost drivers; the index will also feed performance incentives in utility executive compensation. Timing note: the announcement landed the same week as the $1B POWER rebate checks and the EAP enrollment drive, and two days after Blakeman's "peanuts" attack on the rebates. Nothing in the order lowers a bill before the election; the first measurable outputs arrive in 2027.