If you’ve ever gotten your bill from National Grid and been like “damn, how can my bill be that higher when I Uber Eats seven nights a week,” you may very well be right. That’s because many New Yorkers may actually be paying for other people’s gas and unfortunately not even know it.
The way things work currently is that when building owners need a new gas hookup, it’s an out-of-pocket expense if the building is within 100 feet of an existing gas main line. But the money’s gotta come from somewhere, right? And, well, it comes from us. In fact, the costs of these new connections are spread across the entire utility customer base.
The practice is referred to as the “100-foot rule,” and it’s something that has been going on for decades. From 2017 to 2021, New Yorkers spent $200 million per year on connecting new homes to the gas system. That’s nearly 170,000 new customers to the system receiving their gas hookup on our dime…