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.
Private utilities in New York operate as regional monopolies with no competition and do not generate electricity themselves. They own the distribution wires that carry power to homes and businesses, passing supply costs from third-party generators directly to customers, with the PSC setting how much profit they collect on top. As Bushwick Daily reported in June, Con Edison secured a PSC-approved rate hike to fund a major North Brooklyn grid upgrade, with the cost passed directly to customers.
Former utility insiders have backed the investment model the FAIR Act proposes, arguing that the current structure has allowed large payouts to private companies at customers’ expense, the op-ed notes. Robbins also points to Con Edison: in 2025, while the company was cutting off customers for nonpayment, it paid its CEO nearly $20 million in compensation.
A comparable bill has already cleared one state legislature. The Pennsylvania House of Representatives unanimously passed legislation curbing utility returns, which the op-ed cites as a model for New York.
Legislative candidates who won New York primary elections last week have also questioned whether private utility profits should exist at all, Robbins writes. The Utility Customers Association says it will support the FAIR Act as it moves through the Legislature, and the op-ed calls on Gov. Hochul to back the bill.
