Here’s Why Ending the 100ft Rule is Good News for Your Wallet
Thank you, Speaker Heastie and Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins, Senator Krueger and Assemblymember Simon, for your leadership in protecting New York ratepayers by eliminating the outdated 100-foot rule. This long-overdue reform is a critical step toward healthier, more energy-efficient homes—and most importantly, it will save New Yorkers money.
In the coming days, you may hear oil and gas executives sounding the alarm about this change. They’ll try to tell you that eliminating the 100-foot rule is a mistake; that it will somehow harm families; that New York politicians are leaving you in the cold. But don’t be fooled.
The truth is simple: the 100-foot rule was a subsidy—a hidden cost baked into your utility bills—that forced you to pay for the expansion of gas pipes to new customers to the tune of $200 to $400 million each year. Whether or not you used the gas, you were footing the bill to extend an outdated, expensive energy system.
That’s not fair, and it’s not smart policy—especially when we need to transition to more affordable, cleaner energy solutions.
By ending this subsidy, the Legislature has put your interests first. This change means that you, as a New Yorker paying your monthly utility bill, are no longer paying to expand a system that’s locking us into higher costs and more air pollution. Instead, resources can now be focused where they belong: on helping families upgrade to efficient, electric heating and appliances that cost less to operate, improve indoor air quality, and reduce pollution.
For too long, the 100-foot rule gave oil and gas companies an unfair advantage, propping up an old system at your expense. It kept families tethered to fuels that are increasingly volatile in price and harmful to health. Ending these wasteful subsidies levels the playing field. It helps homeowners and renters alike access modern, cost-saving technologies like heat pumps—solutions that don’t just lower bills, but make homes healthier by reducing indoor air pollution linked to asthma and other respiratory diseases.
Make no mistake: this is a win for your wallet and your future. It’s a win for cleaner air, lower monthly expenses, and a more resilient, affordable energy system for all New Yorkers.
We applaud Speaker Heastie, Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins, Senator Krueger and Assemblymember Simon for standing up to entrenched fossil fuel interests and doing what’s right for everyday families. By eliminating the 100-foot rule, they are leading New York toward a smarter, more equitable energy future—one where our hard-earned money isn’t wasted propping up the past, but invested in the clean, affordable homes we all deserve.
By Julie Tighe, President of New York League of Conservation Voters and Lisa Dix, New York Director of Building Decarbonization Coalition
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