Hochul’s Gop Rival Turns Energy Cost Warnings Against Her

ALBANY, New York — Gov. Kathy Hochul battled members of her own party and environmental groups to weaken the state’s landmark climate law this year, arguing the changes were needed to prevent higher utility bills.

But that victory, one of the governor’s top priorities in tense budget negotiations with fellow Democrats this year, has largely been missing from her campaign pitch, even as Republican foe Bruce Blakeman has repeatedly hammered her for rising utility bills.

Blakeman squarely blames Hochul and other Albany Democrats for residential electricity rates that have risen by as much as 50% during her tenure and promises — with scant details — to cut bills in half if he unseats the incumbent.

And he’s using Hochul’s own warnings against her. To pressure reluctant Democratic lawmakers during budget negotiations, the governor used a memo projecting steep costs for households from meeting the climate law’s near-term target for reducing emissions. The final budget rendered that target moot, but her opponent continues to cite the estimates.

“Kathy Hochul’s green energy will cost your family $4,000 a year,” says the narrator in a Blakeman ad featuring giant utility bills chasing residents down the street.

Instead of touting her push to roll back the climate law, Hochul has largely sought to blunt Blakeman’s attacks by blaming President Donald Trump, a staunch Blakeman ally, for higher gas prices and thwarting clean energy investments that could eventually shield consumers from volatile fossil fuel prices.

“Our energy costs are being driven by the assault on our energy strategy,” Hochul said last month. “I'm trying to have an all-the-above approach to trying to expand our energy options that'll drive down costs. Meanwhile, I'm trying to fight Donald Trump, who is thwarting our efforts.”

When asked on Friday why she’s not talking about the climate law rollback on the campaign trail, Hochul said the issue is “nuanced” and that it’s “not as crisp” to talk about avoiding potential future costs versus touting near-term savings.

“I simply rolled back the time frame for compliance,” the governor said. “So you can't say I put that money back in your pockets. I stopped that from being an additional cost, and I still stand behind that.”

“On my campaign, I'm able to say, ‘No, we put a billion dollars back in energy rebates,’” she added. “We're doing everything we can to counter the escalating costs out of Washington, and people know who I'm fighting for.”

The increases in utility bills have multiple causes, including volatile fossil fuel prices and spending to replace aging infrastructure. A state analysis puts climate-law-related charges at roughly 5% to 10% of current residential electricity bills.

Hochul leads by double digits in polls in a state where Republicans haven’t won a statewide race in more than two decades. She’s got a massive financial advantage and a built-in edge with far more Democratic registered voters than Republicans.

Her approval stood at 40% in a recent poll, though Trump is even less popular in New York.

“What's being talked about in the campaign is the skyrocketing costs of energy that are just going further and further up because of this war in Iran that the president has got us into,” said state Sen. Jeremy Zellner, chair of the Erie County Democratic Committee.

The focus on affordability comes as electricity prices rise faster than paychecks. The issue is alsofeaturing prominently in other midterm races, amid a backlash against data centers driving costs higher.

Beyond bashing Trump, Hochul has touted her first-in-the-nation statewide moratorium on data centers, programs for utility bill assistance, energy rebate checks and new efforts to control rising utility rates as she campaigns.

Mainstream environmental groups that opposed changing the climate law have largely lined up behind Hochul’s reelection campaign, zeroing in on her continued support for building clean energy while Blakeman opposes solar and offshore wind. They’re boosting her message that, in the long term, investments in renewables can insulate New Yorkers from volatile fossil fuel prices.

“He's anti-wind, he's anti-solar, he's anti-transmission, he's anti-storage,” said New York League of Conservation Voters president and CEO Julie Tighe of Blakeman. “The governor has really been focused on a diversified energy future and has been really going to the mat on offshore wind.”

Electricity and natural gas costs have risen across the U.S. in recent years. Major factors behind the increases include volatile fossil fuel prices driven higher by global instability, particularly Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Significant utility investments to replace aging infrastructure, made more costly by inflation, are also a major factor in New York and other states.

Those investments are approved by the state’s utility regulator, whose members were mostly appointed by the governor. Policymakers say the increased rates are needed to maintain reliability.

Republicans in New York have hammered Democrats over the 2019 climate law and the lack of new pipelines to bring in more gas, noting that New York’s retail electricity rates have risen at a faster clip than in other states.

Even some Democratic lawmakers have pressed for prioritizing short-term affordability concerns over investments in clean energy and efficiency programs. Hochul has also approved a controversial natural gas pipeline into the New York City region and pushed for new nuclear power.

The state’s analysis estimates that for the average residential electricity customer, climate-law related costs range from 5.2% of the bill for Con Edison to 9.5% for National Grid. That includes subsidies for upstate nuclear plants, rooftop solar, energy efficiency and heat pumps.

Because so few new large-scale wind and solar projects have actually been built, subsidies for those projects accounted for only about 35 cents on a monthly bill in 2025.

New Yorkers pay higher electricity rates than residents of most other states, but lower usage helps limit their bills.

New York had the second-lowest per capita energy expenditures — including gasoline, natural gas, electricity and other sources — in the nation in 2024, according to federal data.

Blakeman hasn’t explained how he’d cut utility bills in half, a prospect that experts consider infeasible.

“I’m not sure if he understands that delivery charges aren’t just some abstract government fee, they pay for the people and infrastructure that maintain the grid, respond to storms, replace aging equipment and keep the system reliable,” said Glen Casey, who represents Utility Workers Union of America Local 1-2 and the IBEW Utility Labor Council.

The Nassau County executive has proposed allowing fracking in the state to increase the supply of gas and lower costs, a practice environmental groups successfully fought to ban just over a decade ago.

“When I become governor, that is the end of the green energy scam. It’s over,” Blakeman said at a rally with Trump in Syracuse last week. “When I become governor, the Marcellus shale, it’s drill baby drill.”

Republican strategist Dave Catalfamo suggested Blakeman could win voters' confidence without convincing them he can cut bills in half. Catalfamo considers energy costs to be “a defining issue of the race” — and “at the core of the governor's unpopularity.”

“A lot of this stuff is directional confidence,” Catalfamo said. “The only thing I see happening with my utility bills are increases over the past several years. Do I believe that new leadership will abate that? Yeah. Will it be half? I don't know. Will it keep going up? Probably not.”

Hochul campaign spokesperson Ryan Radulovacki pointed to a $1 billion energy rebate check program included in this year’s budget — and hitting mailboxes before the election — and her efforts to rein in utility costs.

“New Yorkers trust Governor Hochul to keep lowering their energy costs because they’ve seen her do it: from taking on the utility companies directly, to stopping AI data centers from jacking up energy prices, to putting $1 billion back in families’ pockets through her energy rebate checks, to fighting for offshore wind projects that would save New Yorkers up to $77 million a month,” he said in a statement. “She’s never going to stop fighting for this state – Bruce Blakeman has shown New Yorkers he’ll only fight for Donald Trump.”

Blakeman’s campaign did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this article.

Many unions that represent utility and energy sector workers, who have clashed with the governor on energy policy in the past, are supporting Hochul. Matthew Aracich, the president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Nassau and Suffolk Counties, panned Blakeman for opposing battery storage and offshore wind, which has provided jobs for workers.

“Blakeman supports Trump. He supports the whole thing, which is no offshore wind,” Aracich said.

Mona Zhang contributed to this report