NYC Landlord Switches Bldg to Dirtier Heating Oil Due to Increased Con Ed Gas Bills

By: Hellen Zaboulani

A landlord is switching his Queens residential building from natural gas to heating oil, because of the skyrocketing Con Edison bills for gas. As reported by the NY Post, John Norton is blaming his decision to abandon the cleaner energy source on New York’s “green” mandates, which made natural gas more expensive. “I can’t afford the gas bills anymore — I’m tapped out,” Norton said, noting that he is already struggling to pay what he owes — as the utility revealed last week that consumers will face new substantial rate hikes.

Norton owns three six-family residential buildings. He showed a copy of his recent Con Ed bill to the Post, proving that the cost to deliver gas to one of his buildings was a whopping three times more than the price of the gas supply itself. His total gas bill for the building from Oct. 23 to Nov. 25 was $601.23— of which $149.45 for the actual gas supply, and another $451.78 was for gas delivery. He was also hit with a $200 late fee, bringing his total up to $801.23 for the month. “That’s ridiculous,” said Norton, who contacted The Post after hearing that ConEd has further plans for double-digit increases next year.

Con Edison, the utility giant, has requested that New York’s utilities regulator, the Public Service Commission, allow it to raise average electric bills by 11.4% — which would shoot gas bills up 13.3%. The proposed rate change would leave customers paying on average $1,848 more annually, compared to 2020.

Norton, who is also a licensed plumber, said he is not having it, and instead purchased a new $7,000 high-efficiency oil-hot-water boiler for at least one of his buildings to switch away from Con Ed-supplied gas. He said the change is slated to save him hundreds of dollars monthly by getting direct oil deliveries. Norton already has an oil delivery supplier lined up and he told the Post his bill could drop to $120 a month by paying $3 a gallon for home heating oil to fill his 40 gallon boiler. “Now I get rid of the gas delivery charge. What choice do I have?” Norton said. “How can anyone keep up with that heating bill?”

Per the Post, Bronx Congressman Ritchie Torres slammed Con Edison’s delivery charges. “Con Ed has been systematically overcharging working-class and middle-class New Yorkers. The customers of Con Ed pay as much as 200% more in gas delivery charges than the customers of National Grid,” he said Sunday. Torres also took a jab at Gov. Kathy Hochul, who appointed state regulators at the Public Service Commision, which approved ConEd’s delivery charges. “Instead of protecting the people of New York from price-gouging, Governor Kathy Hochul and the Public Service Commission have enabled ConEd to prey upon the working class and middle class in an age of inflation.”

On Sunday, Con Edison commented to the Post, defending the Albany-approved delivery charges. “The delivery charge, set by the New York State Public Service Commission, covers the costs of running one of the nation’s most expansive and complex energy systems safely and reliably,” the utility giant said. “This includes the work of our highly trained planners, operators, and crews, as well as safety projects like leak detection and main replacement, our first-in-the-nation gas detectors in homes, and various other technologies to ensure our customers have safe energy when you need it.”