About NY HEAT
New York State is currently considering the NY HEAT Act (S2016/A4592), an ambitious piece of legislation that would pave the way for the state’s buildings to transition from fossil fueled to electric heating.
NY HEAT Act also aims to alleviate the New York’s energy affordability crisis: the bill would direct the state to ensure no household pays more than 6% of their annual income on gas and electric bills.1
1 See §6 of the NY HEAT Act (NYS Legislature 2024).
This data briefing from think thank Win Climate evaluates how NY HEAT would impact energy affordability across the Hudson Valley.
How many Hudson Valley residents are energy burdened?
Nearly 1 in 4 (24%) of Hudson Valley residents are energy burdened, meaning they pay more than 6% of their annual income on electricity, natural gas, and delivered fossil fuels.
How much money would residents save?
If NY HEAT were enacted, the 24% of Hudson Valley residents that are energy burdened would cut their bills by over 40%, saving an average of $148 a month.
How do burdens and savings vary across the Hudson Valley?
Different areas of the Hudson Valley are more energy burdened, and would enjoy greater savings, than others:
The following table contains a complete breakdown of our findings:
About Win Climate
Win Climate is a think tank that provides legislators and advocates with rigorous and actionable data on state climate policy.
Our team of data scientists and policy experts brings evidence-based insight to climate and energy issues.
Find out more at climate.win.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Laurie Wheelock and the staff of the Public Utility Law Project (PULP) for their helpful discussion of energy affordability calculation methods.
Data & Methods
To understand how much Hudson Valley residents are spending on energy, we turned to the American Community Survey (ACS), the flagship yearly survey from the US Census.
- Energy burdens: For all of the households in a County, we estimated their yearly energy bill costs (combining electricity, natural gas, heating oil and propane), and calculated which households spent more than 6% of their annual income. To ensure we’re comparing apples-to-apples, we excluded any households whose bills are included in their rent, and any with missing income or utility data.
- Savings under NY HEAT: We identified households that spent more than 6% of their income on electricity and natural gas. For homes heated by delivered fuels, we selected households that spent more than 6% of their income on electricity alone. We then calculated the savings that would result if the bills of these two populations shrunk to 6%.
NY HEAT does not apply to delivered fuels: while we factor fuel delivery payments in our energy burden calculation, households receive no discounts for these payments in our model. This is why NY HEAT would not completely eliminate energy burdened households in the Hudson Valley.
References
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Citation
@online{shron2024,
author = {Shron, Max and Velez, Juan-Pablo},
title = {NY {HEAT} and {Energy} {Affordability} in the {Hudson}
{Valley}},
date = {2024-02-14},
langid = {en},
abstract = {An analysis of how implementing NY HEAT Act’s 6\%
affordability provision would affect energy burdens in New York’s
Hudson Valley.}
}