National Grid Gas Rates to Jump — Again — on April 1

Co-op and condo boards exert only limited control over their buildings' budgets. One thing they can't control is the price of utilities, which is undergoing "shocking" hikes, in the words of a Bronx congressman.

On April 1, National Grid customers in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island will see a 5.1% increase in their gas bills (an average of $9.61 a month), Gothamist reports. This hike is sandwiched between a 19.4% hike last September and an already-approved 11.1% hike coming in April 2026.

Rates for Long Island and Rockaway Peninsula residences went up 22.3% in September and are set to increase another 4.4% next month, then another 9.7% in April 2026.

Con Edison, meanwhile, is proposing to raise electric bills by an average of 11.4% and gas bills by 13.3% starting on Jan. 1, 2026 for its 9 million customers in New York City and Westchester County.

“The extent of the increases is shocking to the conscience,” says U.S. Rep. Richie Torres, a Bronx Democrat, who released reports this week to argue that Gov. Kathy Hochul should do more to rein in utility companies and support oversight measure she has previously blocked. “Most working-class and middle-class New Yorkers cannot afford a nearly 40% rate hike. These double-digit increases are unaffordable and unsustainable, and the compounding effect of rate increase upon rate increase is making New York unaffordable to working people."

New York's Public Service Commission, which regulates the state's utilities industry and whose members are appointed by the governor, approves the rates on a three-year cycle. Torres argues that although Hochul has publicly advocated for utility affordability, she hasn’t used her influence over the commission to rein in rates.

Torres supports a bill, now before both houses of the state Legislature, that would create a utility consumer advocate — a position he described as having “the authority to issue subpoenas, conduct investigations and initiate litigation” to protect consumers. Hochul and other governors have vetoed such legislation in the past.

New Yorkers, meanwhile, appear doomed to keep paying ever-higher prices for gas and electricity.