Matt Simpson, the Republican from Essex County who represents the Lake George region in the New York State Assembly, is a co-sponsor of legislation that would delay by a decade the adoption of mandates requiring New York to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2020 and 100% by 2050.
“The Climate Action Council’s timelines were established by politicians, not by experts. Otherwise, we would be meeting them already,” said Simpson. “We need to address climate change, but we need to do it in a way that’s affordable for people like those I represent.”
The bill, which stalled in the Assembly’s Environmental Conservation Committee this year, would also require the Public Service Commission to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of clean versus petroleum and natural gas-generated electricity.
The region’s representative in the State Senate, Queensbury’s Dan Stec, is a sponsor of similar legislation in that house.
At a 2025 budget hearing, Stec questioned NYSERDA President Doreen Harris about the costs of meeting the state’s climate goals to commercial and residential ratepayers. Harris acknowledged that these costs would be passed down to consumers, referring to them as “incremental costs.”
“Most people don’t realize that we consumers pay for these renewable energy projects, including the infrastructure supporting the transition to electrical vehicles,” said Matt Simpson, who also supports legislation that would require every utility to issue itemized monthly statements detailing the company’s share of the costs of funding the state’s clean energy projects. Simpson said his legislation would also require that the consumers’ share of those costs be detailed in their bills as well.
“We were told that the cost of these renewable projects would start to drop, but we haven’t seen that,” said Simpson. “I’ve been sounding the alarm since I was elected to the Assembly in 2020 that our utility bills will keep rising so long as we continue to mandate green energy programs, including the increased use of electric vehicles.”
According to Simpson, the New York Power Authority’s statewide network of EVolve NY fast chargers, four of which are located in the Adirondacks, is at least partially funded by the rates paid by utility customers.
“I see a lot of people driving Teslas; they’re supported by the consumers in my district who could never afford one,” said Simpson. “I would find it difficult to explain to an elderly couple on a fixed income why they should be the ones subsidizing the cost of combatting climate change, when everyone is responsible.”
Simpson was an advocate for the agreement in the state’s 2025-26 budget that allows some school districts to defer by four years a mandate requiring them to start replacing their diesel-fueled school busses with a zero emission fleet.
The New York League of Conservation Voters, the Alliance for Clean Energy New York and other non-profit public interest groups continue to support the electric school bus mandate, as well as the mandates requiring New York to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2020 and 100% by 2050. As yet, no environmental advocacy group has commented on A.5395, the bill co-sponsored by Simpson.
In its August 14 press release announcing that it had approved National Grid’s proposal to raise its rates over a three year-period, the state’s Public Service Commission said the plan “is supportive of the objectives of the state’s climate goals” but did not say what percentage of the higher electric bills will be allocated for renewable energy projects. The Times Union of Albany, however, reported that National Grid residential customers paid nearly 10% more for electricity in 2022 to support the state’s efforts to fulfill its 2040 clean-energy mandate.
