New York’s gubernatorial Republican nominee Bruce Blakeman has vowed to slash energy bills statewide in half on his very first day in office.
The Nassau County executive told Pod Force One’s Miranda Devine that he’d gut green energy mandates, slash delivery costs and lower taxes that he claimed are responsible for up 70% of the average utility bill — all on day one if elected governor.
“I can cut your electric bill in half, day one, when I become governor,” Blakeman told Devine, adding that only about 30% of the average electric bill actually goes toward energy.
“I can cut your electric bill in half, day one, when I become governor,” Blakeman said. James Messerschmidt for the NY Post “I will control the regulatory authorities. We will bring down the taxes. We will bring down the delivery costs. And I will get rid of the green energy scam,” Blakeman vowed on the Thursday podcast.
The average customers on Long Island, however, see almost 45% of their bill go towards supply charges, 51% in delivery costs and just 6% in taxes — though delivery costs do include some green energy program fees bundled in, according to data from the Regional Plan Association, a nonprofit that studies the New York metro region’s infrastructure and energy grid.
Blakeman also vowed to bring fracking back to New York. Dennis A. Clark for NY Post Every week, Post columnist Miranda Devine sits down for exclusive and candid conversations with the most influential disruptors in Washington on ‘Pod Force One.’ Subscribe here!
Blakeman also vowed to bring fracking back to New York, claiming the state is sitting atop a natural gas reserve so massive it rivals major middle-eastern oil fields while Gov. Kathy Hochul has blocked drilling, killed pipeline expansions and is pushing an all-electric mandate out of environmental concerns and plans for a green energy-led future.
But the Republican and Trump-ally’s vision for the state’s energy grid is a sharp departure from Hochul’s — rooted in expanding fossil fuels, deregulation and the belief that flooding the market with domestic supply is the fastest way to put money back in New Yorkers’ pockets.
“We have right now one of the largest natural gas reserves in all the world, it’s almost equivalent to Saudi Arabia, right here in New York state, and we’re not drilling,” he exclaimed.
“Anybody who knows anything about economics — knows that there’s the theme of supply and demand — the demand is very high for electric, but the supply has been restricted by Kathy Hochul’s policies, where she wants to go all electric, where she doesn’t want to drill for natural gas, where she didn’t agree to extend the pipeline,” he said.
Blakeman added that drilling for domestic oil in the state would create jobs and ultimately bring down energy bills, which are currently 50% higher than the national average, according to data from the Empire Center and U.S. Energy Information Administration.
“These are all things that I will do,” he promised.
