The legacy media recently fixated on news that the Canadian province of Ontario threatened to place surcharges on energy exports to the United States. The concern was that these surcharges could cause electricity prices in states such as New York to skyrocket. We find it distressing that only now, with President Donald Trump in office, does the media suddenly care about high prices in the north when these prices have already been unnecessarily high for decades.
The primary obstacle to lower electricity prices in the Northeastern U.S. is clear. Blue states have denied affordable and reliable energy by blocking pipeline construction, retiring generating facilities too early with no replacements, doubling their infrastructure costs with unreliable wind and solar, and levying exorbitant state taxes on affordable energy. These policies have punished the industries and mechanisms that make energy affordable in other states.
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New York has sacrificed energy affordability at the climate change altar. On the production side, New York banned hydraulic fracking in 2014 despite having almost 12 million acres of the Marcellus Shale deposit within its borders. By contrast, Pennsylvania’s fracking revolution has created jobs and prosperity in rural economies, resulting in electricity costs 8 cents lower per kilowatt-hour than in neighboring New York.
On the importation side, the state refused to grant water quality permits to the proposed Constitution Pipeline. This critical infrastructure would have delivered natural gas from Pennsylvania to consumers in New York and New England, where prices are persistently high. New York is strangely resistant to natural gas pipelines, considering 46% of its electricity generation comes from gas, making it the country’s sixth-largest natural gas-consuming state. These policies don’t stop New York from consuming gas, but make shipping more expensive.
New York also loves to shoot itself in the foot by retiring existing power generation without investing in electricity generation that works. When New York shut down the Indian Point nuclear plant, a carbon-free power source, officials claimed renewables could offset the lost capacity, but this has not materialized. Instead, almost all of the plant’s 2,083 megawatts were replaced with imported natural gas.
Likewise, New York has dumped over $55 billion on renewable and transmission projects to receive a shockingly dismal return. Only 5% of New York’s generation comes from solar and 4% from wind. In 2023, New York raved about its commitments to offshore wind projects, which cost $500 million in state funds and over $2.5 billion in private capital, only for those projects to get canceled a year later. Amazingly, these cost totals don’t count the price of building or maintaining gas plants that must run when wind and solar aren’t producing while demand surges. A normal gas plant typically costs 6.5 cents per kilowatt hour, while these gas peaker plants cost roughly 20 cents per kilowatt hour.
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New York and its localities also impose burdensome taxes on energy infrastructure. The state is home to what is called a Climate Change Superfund, which is essentially an additional fee that companies pay when importing any fossil fuel into the state. It is expected to generate $3 billion annually, but these extra fees are passed on to the consumers. New York City residents face an additional hidden energy cost: Many are unaware that up to 30% of their energy bill consists of property taxes. New York City charges dual property taxes not only on real estate but also on energy infrastructure. These property taxes have increased from roughly $500 million in 2000 to almost $2.5 billion in 2023 — a more than 300% increase.
Cutting the supply of affordable and reliable energy in favor of more expensive intermittent sources defies logic and burdens families, small business owners, and farmers unnecessarily. As members of the Congressional Western Caucus, a group of over 90 U.S. representatives focused on reestablishing American energy independence to lower costs, we support broad access to affordable and reliable energy. As members of Congress from blue states, we understand the uphill battle we must fight to rein in out-of-control climate activists and clueless state politicians. We will continue to prioritize this fight on behalf of our constituents.
Doug LaMalfa represents California’s 1st Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives and serves as chairman of the Congressional Western Caucus. Nicole Malliotakis represents New York’s 11th Congressional District.