A Republican rival to Kathy Hochul blasted the governor’s stance against massive Con Edison rate hikes — calling it a “gimmick” as he blamed her green-energy policies for the sticker shock.
Rep. Mike Lawler, who’s eyeing a run for governor in 2026, accused Hochul of trying to cover her butt by urging the state utility regulator to reject Con Edison proposed double-digit rate hikes despite raking in $67,000 worth of campaign donations from PACs and donors affiliated with the company.
“Governor Hochul’s crocodile tears over Con Edison’s proposed rate hikes, when her absurd clean energy mandates are forcing energy costs higher and higher, are fake and political,” Lawler told The Post.
“Like most everything she does, it’s a gimmick designed to deflect blame.”
Con Edison is asking the state Public Service Commission for the increases for its 3.6 million customers that would jack up electric bills by 11.4% and send gas bills soaring 13.3% next year – increases Hochul called “intolerable” and “shocking.”
Hochul held a news conference in her Manhattan office Tuesday after days of mounting outrage from tapped-out New Yorkers who would pay $1,848 more per year compared to five years ago if the proposal is OK’d by the PSC, packed with her appointees.
Lawler sent a letter to Hochul Tuesday, saying it’s the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act of 2019 championed by Hochul and her predecessor, Andrew Cuomo, that is triggering utilities like Con Ed to push for rate hikes to comply with green mandates in the law.
The law requires the state and its energy producers and consumers to ween off fossil fuels by slashing gas emissions by 40% by 2030 and achieve 100% zero-carbon-emission electricity by 2040.
These policies have “only made things worse for New Yorkers,” Lawler said in the letter.
“The problem at hand isn’t the rate hike you’re correctly highlighting but the entire framework you’ve built that has made them inevitable,” Lawler said.
“We need an all-of-the-above energy approach, which means using solar, tidal, nuclear, wind, and natural gas to help lower costs for New Yorkers,” he added in a separate statement.
Regulated utilities such as Con Ed are generous campaign donors to the governor, like others dependent on actions in Albany.
Con Edison’s political action committees and staffers have pumped more than $67,000 into Hochul’s campaign coffers, much of it after she became governor in 2021.
CEO Tim Cawley made two contributions totaling $10,000, state Board of Elections records show.
Hochul defended her record and push for affordability, and pointed out that Con Edison blamed New York City’s high property taxes as the primary driver of the utility’s proposed rate hikes.
“As the governor cited yesterday, in each of her enacted budgets since taking office, she has reversed a long-standing trend in New York of siphoning revenue from ratepayers for government budget relief,” a Hochul spokesman said.
Con Ed also cited costs associated with the green energy edicts in its rate-hike request.
Hochul’s campaign team also painted Lawler as a tool of the fossil fuel industry, noting he previously served as a lobbyist and executive director of New Yorkers for Affordable Energy, a group that promotes natural gas.
“Former big oil lobbyist Mike Lawler made thousands of dollars lining the pockets of the same companies Governor Hochul is holding accountable on behalf of New Yorkers,” said Hochul campaign spokeswoman Jen Goodman. “Instead of grandstanding, Mike should follow her lead and take on his former bosses in Washington.”
