A new state bill that would limit the profit rate utilities like Con Edison are authorized to earn on infrastructure investments could cut electricity bills across New York, according to an op-ed published Tuesday in the New York Daily News by Robbins, director of the Utility Customers Association.

The Fair Authorized Investment Returns (FAIR) Act, sponsored by Assemblymember Sarahana Shrestha and Sen. Shelley Mayer, would reduce the rate of return that the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) allows for-profit utilities to collect from customers on capital investments. Under the current model, utilities earn a profit for every dollar they spend building out infrastructure, and that profit flows back to investors. The FAIR Act would lower that rate but keep it high enough to attract investment, Robbins argues.

New Yorkers already pay some of the highest electricity prices in the country. Legally approved rate hikes and long-term supply disruptions from the Iran war have made it worse, Robbins writes. Con Edison cut power to more than 88,000 households for nonpayment last year, and an AARP study released in March found one in five older New Yorkers has taken on debt or borrowed money to afford utility bills, per the op-ed.