For This House Democrat, the Political Fight Over Affordability Is Also a Legal One

Democrats have had plenty to say on the campaign trail about rising energy prices. One — New York Rep. Josh Riley — is getting involved legally.

Riley said he is the only member of Congress to add himself as an official party to legal cases playing out over utility price hikes.

He intervened as an official party in November 2024 — the month he was elected to Congress — in a state case launched against the Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corporation after the utility proposed a rate hike. And in July, he intervened in a similar case about a New York State Electric and Gas rate hike proposal, unlocking the ability to cross-examine the utility companies, access evidence in the cases and more.

“Over and over and over and over, people have been telling me they get the utility bill every month, and it’s, like, just a punch in the gut,” Riley, who represents New York’s 19th district in upstate New York and faces a tight race for reelection in 2026, told NOTUS.

“These rate cases are where the rubber really hits the road with the rate hikes,” Riley added. “I saw it as a creative and aggressive way to take on the utility companies and take on the regulators and challenge a really frankly corrupt system.”

Upstate New York is increasingly taking center stage in conversations around rising electricity prices. All Americans are seeing their bills go up, but utility hikes are especially pronounced in states where aging grid infrastructure converges with data center development.

Prices across New York are increasing significantly faster than the rate of inflation, and by some estimates, the state has seen one of the greatest annual changes in electricity costs in the nation between last year and this year.

Riley’s strategy of involving himself in utility rate hike cases, which are litigated through the state’s public service commission, is a test of affordability politics: Democrats have campaigned plenty on bringing prices down, but can they translate that messaging into real results for consumers?

He may be the only member of Congress going the legal route. But on the state level, he’s not alone. One other elected official — New York state Rep. Sarahana Shrestha — also intervened in the Central Hudson case. And at least 20 state representatives and senators did the same in the NYSEG case.

Riley’s success in the two upstate rate cases is yet to be seen. Hearings in the NYSEG rate case are ongoing. And the state’s public service commission approved Central Hudson’s proposed rate hike — which could drive up electricity rates more than 10% and gas rates almost 20% over three years for the average customer.

Riley’s motion for the commission to reconsider its decision was denied. The rate hikes went into effect in September.

But it’s a tactic that he and others say gives considerable leverage in the political fight over rising prices.

“Intervening in rate cases is great for electeds because it allows us to sort of go under the hood and look at what’s being done,” Shrestha told NOTUS. “It allows us to ask the utilities some questions.”

In upstate New York, the cases have drawn a “groundswell” of public interest and concern, Laurie Wheelock, the executive director of New York’s Public Utility Law Project, told New York Focus this month.

Electricity prices in New York especially entered the spotlight during a meeting between New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and President Donald Trump last month, when both lawmakers agreed that Con Edison should lower its rates.

Con Edison proposed a rate increase earlier this year that would have driven up customers’ electricity bills by an average of more than $25, but reduced that amount after seeing fierce opposition — including from elected officials — in its rate case.

Elsewhere in the state, intervention from elected officials has proven somewhat successful. The New York Power Authority revised a plan that would have tripled electricity rates after Gov. Kathy Hochul and other lawmakers spoke out against it this year.

Lawmakers’ line of questioning in the Central Hudson case has revolved around inconsistent statements by the utility about why it needs to raise electricity rates. According to Riley’s filings in the case, Central Hudson told regulators that its current rates were insufficient in August 2024 and then told investors the following month that its current rates were “sufficient for the foreseeable future.”

“What we were looking at was two different snapshots in time,” Central Hudson spokesperson Joe Jenkins told NOTUS. “When the comment was made that, ‘yes, we have enough money for the business,’ that was as it stood at that time. Our rate cases are for what we need to operate the business forward, looking into the future.”

Jenkins added that Central Hudson aims to have “strong working relationships, not adversarial relationships, with our elected officials.”

Other elected officials who have intervened in the rate cases have criticized the utility companies for shifting cost increases on to customers while making increasingly large revenues.

“It certainly seems to me that based upon the revenue NYSEG is obtaining from Sullivan County, NYSEG could easily be investing more in upgrades and in maintenance without shifting those costs completely on the ratepayers,” state Rep. Paula Elaine Kay, who represents parts of Sullivan and Orange counties in upstate New York, said in a testimony filed in the NYSEG rate case.

The electric industry in New York makes the most revenue per kilowatt hour in the country alongside California, according to the Energy Information Administration.

“We share Congressman Riley’s concerns about the impact to utility bills and are focused on an approach that prioritizes affordability. We hope he will work with us on advancing a long-term plan that benefits the residents of Upstate New York and makes the grid investments that are needed,” NYSEG spokesperson Michael Baggerman said in a statement. “Further, we would like to collaborate with the Congressman to advance policies that address the true drivers of increased costs at the state and federal levels. That said, some of Rep. Riley’s comments to the media during the rate case process have contained misinformation that has been misleading for the residents of New York.”

Some lawmakers said they think rate cases aren’t enough to stop utilities’ attempts to keep raising rates.

“In terms of the return, it’s actually pretty low,” Shrestha told NOTUS. “I have been intervening in rate cases since I got into office in 2023, and my main takeaway is that it’s a lot of time investment, and you actually cannot stop the rate increases.”

Shrestha is taking a legislative path instead, encouraging the state to take over the Central Hudson utility. But the fate of that effort is in limbo, too. It’s garnered significant opposition from Central Hudson, utility worker unions and more, and legislative leaders haven’t committed to taking up the bill in the state Legislature’s next session.