Assemblyman Matt Simpson (R,C-Adirondack) joined Senate and Assembly Minority lawmakers in Albany to spotlight the state’s unsustainable energy mandates under the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) and the severe financial burden they will impose on New Yorkers without urgent reforms in Albany.

A recent memo from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) confirms what Minority lawmakers have warned about for years. The implementation of these mandates could drive annual energy cost increases exceeding $4,100 for upstate households reliant on oil and natural gas and around $2,300 for natural gas households in some parts of the state. Additional projections indicate gasoline prices could rise by more than $2.23 per gallon by 2031 without policy changes.

Assembly Minority members have long sounded the alarm on the CLCPA’s unrealistic timelines, lack of affordability safeguards and threats to energy reliability and grid stability. This NYSERDA analysis validates those concerns and the need for a balanced, pragmatic approach that prioritizes affordability and keeps the lights on for all New Yorkers.

“For years, the Minority has been warning that the CLCPA’s aggressive mandates and inflexible timelines would lead to exactly this outcome. We have dramatically higher energy costs that hit working families hardest. Now, even NYSERDA’s own analysis confirms it,” said Simpson.

“While the environmental goals may be admirable, the solutions cannot be worse than the problems they aim to fix. New York already leads the nation in out-migration, largely because of our state’s ongoing affordability crisis. Forcing New Yorkers to shoulder the tab for these policy shortcomings through skyrocketing utility bills is simply unacceptable and unsustainable,” Simpson concluded.