News · Press Release

NEW: For Josh Riley, the Political Fight Over Affordability Is Also a Legal One [NOTUS]

New reporting spotlights Riley’s work as the only Member of Congress to involve himself in legal cases over utility price hikes
As utility companies continue to crush Upstate New Yorkers with skyrocketing energy bills, new reporting from NOTUS highlights the unprecedented steps Congressman Josh Riley is taking to protect hardworking families from devastating and unnecessary rate hikes.

Riley is currently the only Member of Congress to formally intervene in utility rate cases, inserting himself directly into proceedings to challenge the billing practices of both NYSEG and Central Hudson to demand transparency, accountability, and relief for families already stretched thin by rising utility costs.

But Riley’s work to hold utility companies accountable doesn’t stop with intervening in rate cases. He has also introduced legislation to prohibit utility company executives from receiving bonuses whenever they raise rates faster than inflation and ban foreign corporations and foreign governments from owning American utility companies – ensuring power companies answer to local communities and put people over profits.

Read about the Congressman’s work for yourself:
  • 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.”
  • 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 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.
  • 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.
  • The electric industry in New York makes the most revenue per kilowatt hour in the country alongside California, according to the Energy Information Administration.

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