What, you may ask, is the 100-foot rule and why are Republicans making such a big stink about Democrats’ move to repeal it?

In a nutshell, New York’s “100-foot rule,” passed in 1986, prohibited utility companies from charging individual customers for the cost of a new gas service as long as the new customer was within 100 feet of an existing gas line. It’s a rule reflective of its era in time. New York lawmakers and utility regulators were trying to encourage homeowners to move from coal furnaces to natural gas because it was a cleaner source of heat, and regulators didn’t want the cost of hooking up to natural gas to keep people from switching. At the same time, rather than simply eat the cost of the new hookups, utilities were allowed to create ratepayer-backed funds to pay for such connections. Fast forward some 40 years, and the state’s dominant political party has changed its tune. Democrats say the rule subsidized new gas connections for those within 100 feet of existing gas lines, hurting ratepayers while boosting utility company profits. Of course, the real reason to repeal the 100 foot rule is to make the hookup costs between natural gas and electric heat more even as Democrats push to electrify New York’s power grid. Republicans say it will make it more expensive for those who want to hook up natural gas service and lessen use of a reliable fuel source.

The ball is in Gov. Kathy Hochul’s court now that legislation to repeal the 100-foot rule has passed both houses of the state Legislature along party lines. We expect she will approve the legislation – though we note that, at this point in time, repealing the 100-foot rule flies in the face of Hochul’s affordability agenda. In addition to requiring those who want natural gas service to pay for the hookup themselves rather than through a ratepayer-backed fund, many electric components are more expensive than their natural gas counterparts – and in many parts of the state electric is more expensive to use than gas. That’s not the case in the Jamestown area thanks to the Board of Public Utilities, so it can often be cheaper to use electric heat than natural gas for many homes in the winter. We are the exception, not the rule.

The bigger picture is also problematic. The New York Independent System Operator is warning of shortages of power available on the electric grid because the state is adding too much electric use while retiring reliable sources of power fueled by natural gas and nuclear power plants. The ISO has been pushing state officials to keep natural gas “peaker” plants open until enough renewable power comes online to make sure the power grid is stable, while Hochul has begun toying with the idea of encouraging nuclear power, another source of reliable energy the state has phased out in the past.

There may be a time in the future when ending the 100-foot rule makes sense – but we’re not there yet, in our opinion. As has been the case since the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act was passed in 2019, the state is trying to move too far, too fast. In our opinion, further pushes to electrify homes and buildings should happen once the ISO is forecasting electric surpluses rather than deficits for the power grid.