The NY state Assembly is against the electric-rate hike that is set for April 1, because the surcharge will fund subsidies to four Upstate nuclear plants. For going along with New York 50 by 30 clean-energy plan, which the Assembly endorsed, the state Public Service Commission is required to have half NY electricity generated by non-carbon-emitting sources by 2030. And that is nearly impossible to do without nuclear plants, because solar and wind power just can not (remotely) do the job by themselves.
Yet two of these nuclear plants were already set to close, with the others not far behind, because falling electricity prices had made them money-losers. So the PSC
agreed to pay Exelon, the firm that runs the plants, nearly $1 billion over the next two years to keep the nuke plants running, with the money coming from a fee tacked on to electric bills statewide.
Groups like NYPIRG are funding a high-profile attack on the surcharge, because they hate nuclear power. But they have no practical alternative to reaching the state green goals, either. That does not mean the critics are entirely wrong ... The PSC assumes the subsidies will drop after the first two years of the 12-year arrangement, because it thinks electric rates will start rising again, and the deal automatically reduces the payments if the plants become profitable again.
If rates instead fall (as they have for a decade, thanks to the fracking revolution and cheap gas), the subsidy would continue at the same rate. That said, the PSC is essentially a group of technocrats carrying out lawmakers orders. It is not their fault that legislators did not realize they were promoting nuclear power when they signed on to the states green power plan.
Right now, the anti-nuke crowd is pushing the state Senate to join the Assembly in passing a bill to stop the PSC nuke-subsidy plan but with that order the PSC will go green with wind and solar power, the New York electric bills will skyrocket.
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