Deep Dive into How the NY-19 Candidates Intend To Tackle Energy Affordability

By ERIC SANTOMAURO-STENZEL
and AMY OENOKIDA
UPSTATE NEW YORK

In the hotly-contested race for New York’s 19th Congressional District, each of the three candidates for office have made combatting rising electricity costs the centerpiece of their campaign messaging. What have U.S. Representative Josh Riley, state Senator Peter Oberacker, and Alex Portelli done, and what do they hope to do, to address the issue if they’re sent to Washington, D.C.?

Josh Riley (D)

Representative Josh Riley is seeking a second term as NY-19’s congressman. He lost his first race in 2022 to Marc Molinaro before winning a rematch in 2024. Riley has positioned himself as a populist on the issue of energy costs, describing one of their main causes as “corporate greed and political corruption” in an interview with AllOtsego. Since taking office in January 2025, Riley has introduced or supported several pieces of legislation aimed at reducing electricity costs and regulating utility companies. Many have been bipartisan.

• H.R. 1355—Weatherization Enhancement and Readiness Act, to increase investments in home weatherization
• H.R. 5487—Keep the Lights Local Act, to prohibit foreign ownership of public utilities; NYSEG is owned by Avangrid, which is owned by Spanish parent company Iberdrola
• H.R. 6590—No Bonuses for Utility Executives Act, preventing utility executives from receiving bonuses when the percentage increase in the utility’s rates is more than the percentage increase of the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers
• H.R.8350—No Taxes on Utility Bills Act, allowing federal taxpayers to deduct utility taxes and state-mandated surcharges on gas and electric bills

Riley also recently collaborated with the Congressional Progressive Caucus on the “New Affordability Agenda,” a bill package which includes the “The Lowering Utility Bills Act.” Among other items, that bill would mandate the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to establish a “range of reasonableness” on utility equity returns for transmission projects and ban transmission providers from recouping costs like lobbying and marketing via customer rates.

“I’m going to push as hard as I can for all of them,” Riley said. “But I’m also clear eyed about the challenges we face here, because I am taking on a corrupt establishment that has benefited from this system for a long time, and there’s a lot of politicians who are taking a lot of corporate [Political Action Committee] checks from these utility companies, and they would rather not change the status quo.”

To get the bills passed, Riley said, he is looking to make system-wide changes with “colleagues who are not bought and paid for by the utility monopolies.”

Riley has also leveraged his bully pulpit and legal background to oppose rate hikes. He spoke at multiple New York State Public Service Commission public hearings on NYSEG and RG&E’s proposed hikes last fall, sued the PSC in March over its approval of Central Hudson Gas and Electric’s rate hikes, and has intervened directly as a party to rate cases.

“I’ve been fighting this thing so hard that NYSEG threatened to sue me if I didn’t stop, and they can’t buy me off because I don’t take their corporate tax checks, and they sure as hell aren’t going to intimidate me,” Riley said, referring to a defamation cease and desist letter he received from the company over comments about its profits.

On increasing energy supply, Riley said “we should be exploring every possible option that would put more energy supply on the market and protect the environment,” including nuclear energy. He criticized the Trump administration’s cancelation of multiple off-shore wind projects, both on energy grounds and that they took away “good union jobs.”

In February, a report from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority said that a hypothetical cap-and-invest policy aimed at meeting greenhouse gas emissions targets set by the state’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act could lead to $4,100.00 in costs for upstate gas and oil households. The report comes amidst Governor Kathy Hochul’s efforts to roll back aspects of the 2019 law.

Asked about the issue, Riley said, “I generally think it’s a false choice to say that we can either protect the environment or have affordable energy.”

Riley said the U.S. and Israeli war with Iran, which has caused gasoline prices to increase through the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, “reaffirms how important it is that we have energy independence.”

The Oberacker campaign has frequently criticized Riley as being too close with NYSEG, pointing to an investment of between $100,000.00 and $250,000.00 in the Fidelity International Index Fund first reported by WIVT/WBGH. The fund includes more than 700 different companies, one of them being Iberdrola.

“Phony Josh Riley’s Iberdrola investments are making him fabulously wealthy,” Oberacker said in a May 4 social media post asking viewers whether Riley should “sell his shares.”

Riley rejected those claims, calling Oberacker an “Albany bulls**t artist,” starting with “the first sentence out of his mouth” when the campaign started. He was referring to Oberacker’s campaign launch ad, “Soil,” where Oberacker said he was born upstate in a claim that remains on his social media pages. Oberacker previously said he was born on Long Island and moved upstate with his family as a young child.

“I want to be really, really clear, I do not own any stocks. I don’t own any stocks, and in fact, I’m leading the effort in Congress to ban politicians from trading stocks,” Riley said.

Riley said he is “not surprised in the least” that despite announcing his campaign last October, Oberacker’s congressional campaign website does not contain a policy page.

“The policies he supports are really, really bad for upstate New Yorkers. I suppose he would rather just be silent about it than publicize how much of a disaster he has been for ratepayers,” Riley said.

Peter Oberacker (R)

State Senator Peter Oberacker is hoping to oust Riley and has accepted the endorsement of President Donald J. Trump to do it. First elected to the State Senate in 2020, Oberacker previously served as a member of the Otsego County Board of Representatives, town supervisor for the Town of Maryland, and as a board member for the town. Oberacker has said he wants to bring “country sense” to Congress.

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Oberacker said he is running for three reasons: “It really comes down to affordability, affordability and affordability.” Among those concerns is rising utility costs, which he said were caused by “the radical environmental policies from Governor Hochul and former Governor Cuomo.”

Though the Oberacker team has not posted a federal policy page for what legislation he would support if elected to Congress, Oberacker has been active at the state level. As a state senator, he has introduced the “Utility Ratepayer Bill of Rights” package and spoken out against utility rate hikes. Along with his Republican colleagues in recent months, he has taken aim at the CLCPA and the state’s Office of Renewable Energy Siting and Transmission.

The Utility Ratepayer Bill of Rights includes the following bills. Fuller details are linked in the online version of this article:

• S.8935—The Right to Fair Rates, requiring itemized billing and utilities to attend local meetings before rate increases
• S.8947—The Right to Transparency, requiring itemized billing and utilities proposing rate hikes to attend “no less than three” municipal meetings per impacted county
• S.9023—The Right to Accurate Billing and Complaint Resolution, requiring ratepayer complaints to the utility to be investigated and resolved within 30 days, and for undisputed charges still requiring payment to avoid service disruption to be explained in a plain language written notice
• S.8946—The Right to Timely Customer Service, requiring utilities to offer live customer service and websites to contain real-time outage updates
• S.9119—The Right to Local Oversight, extends the period for which a municipality, resident, or nonprofit can intervene as a party in a certification process for a large electric transmission project from 30 days to 45 days
• S.9118—The Right to Financial Protections, increasing service termination notice time by weeks; decreasing necessary arrears downpayment required to avoid service shutoff from one half what is owed or six months average billing, whichever is less, to one third what is owed or three months average billing; reducing the age residents are eligible for quarterly billing—if the average annual bill is $150.00 or less—from 62 years old to 55 years old, and more
• S.9031—The Right to Recourse, creates a mechanism whereby if a utility is alleged by 100 or more customers to be in violation of state public service law or orders for 90 days or more, the PSC must conduct a “forensic audit” of the utility and publish findings within 180 days
• S.9137—The Right for Inspections, requiring the state Division of Weights and Measures to inspect utility meters at least once per year

Oberacker was also a cosponsor on numerous pieces of bipartisan legislation the State Senate passed this year to address utility costs. Some of those bills, if signed into law, would prohibit utility companies from using ratepayer funds for political purposes; increase NYSERDA reporting requirements; give bill credits to affected ratepayers when a utility is found responsible for violations of public service law or orders; require utilities to provide notice of rate hikes to customers; and many other provisions.

Regarding utility rate hikes, at an October 2025 PSC hearing in Oneonta Oberacker said that, “Over the past month, my office collected over 570 utility complaints. 486 residents gave us permission to work their cases directly with NYSEG.

“Not only am I calling for no rate increase, I’m demanding a full account level audit,” Oberacker said, with “named case managers, written timelines, and public reporting of actual resolutions. If NYSEG can’t resolve a case in 14 days, folks, we want PSC escalation and provisional credits until the facts are verified.”

One of Oberacker’s primary messages in recent social media posts has been calling for the repeal and defunding of the state’s Office of Renewable Energy Siting and Transmission. The office is responsible for siting renewable energy projects expected to produce 25 megawatts or larger and endowed with the authority to adjudicate, and overrule, local municipal zoning laws. The bill was intended to accelerate renewable energy development to increase electricity production and meet greenhouse gas emissions targets in the CLCPA.

Oberacker has said he opposes the body because it removes local control and threatens upstate farmland.

“Everywhere I go, people ask me the same question,” Oberacker said in a May 16 social media post. “What can we do, what can I do, about ORES?

“Here’s the answer: fight back!” Oberacker said, reiterating a call for ORES to be defunded. He called ORES a “secretive agency overriding local control and pushing these massive solar projects into rural communities.”

Oberacker has also been highly critical of the CLCPA, citing in part the NYSERDA memo as driving his opposition.

“The Kathy Hochul cost burden is forcing New Yorkers to flee in search of more affordable states,” Oberacker said in a March statement. “On her watch, New York has had the highest rate of out-migration of any other state in the nation. But for years, Senate Republicans have been providing alternative solutions to her radical agenda and we will not stop until everyday New Yorkers can afford to live here.”

The Riley campaign has been critical of Oberacker’s receipt of donations from the Avangrid New York PAC, one for $100.00 in 2022 and another for $250.00 in May 2025.

“He takes a bunch of corporate PAC money directly from the utility monopolies,” Riley told AllOtsego. “I don’t.”

The Oberacker campaign previously told WIVT/WBGH it returned the contributions, including the $250.00 one last July before his congressional campaign began.

AllOtsego contacted the Oberacker campaign requesting an interview with state Senator Oberacker for this article. Campaign consultant Chapin Fay of Lighthouse Public Affairs replied that “If this story is just about Riley and Oberacker, I will get you some stuff today.”

AllOtsego responded that this story would include Oberacker, Portelli, and Riley, who have all qualified for the ballot, and reiterated the invitation for an interview. The campaign did not reply.

Alex Portelli (R)

Alex Portelli, an insurgent candidate running against Oberacker in the primary, has not served in political office before. The longshot candidate sees that as an advantage in his June 23 primary with Oberacker.

In an interview, Portelli framed his campaign around what he described as the need for major structural changes to New York’s energy system, repeatedly emphasizing nuclear and hydropower expansion, increased local control of utilities, and opposition to foreign-owned utility companies. Many of his criticisms on the campaign trail have focused on Governor Hochul.

Portelli argued that rising utility costs are primarily being driven by supply shortages and insufficient investment in energy infrastructure. He pointed to the closure of the Indian Point nuclear power plant as a major turning point in New York’s electricity system.

“We’re just not producing the energy that we need,” Portelli said, adding that New York is “using the energy infrastructure that our grandparents built.”

He said he would support federal involvement in expanding nuclear and hydropower projects, including low-interest federally backed industrial loans to incentivize infrastructure development. He contrasted those proposals with excessive federal spending in other areas, saying that energy infrastructure should become a higher national priority.

While acknowledging that nuclear projects take years to complete, Portelli said hydropower upgrades could provide more immediate results, including retrofitting existing dams with turbines. He also explained nuclear power as one of the cleanest and most efficient long-term energy sources available.

He said nuclear energy is “something that scares people, but it’s something that we can’t be scared of.”

Portelli also advocated for reducing the role of large utility companies and shifting more authority toward municipalities and electricity cooperatives. He repeatedly criticized NYSEG and National Grid as “corporate monopolies” and argued that locally controlled systems in places such as Plattsburgh and Green Island have demonstrated lower electricity costs.

“I really think New York does energy backwards,” Portelli said. “The state should not be involved in production, and these monopolies should not control delivery.”

On climate change, he believes climate change is real, but argued that the United States alone cannot significantly reduce global carbon emissions. He considered hydropower and nuclear energy as the most practical low-emission alternatives.

Portelli was sharply critical of both Riley and Oberacker, arguing that neither candidate had proposed sufficiently aggressive solutions to address utility costs.

“Riley is hammering at NYSEG, which is cool,” Portelli said, “but at the end of the day, that doesn’t really help us.”

He also dismissed Oberacker’s proposed “Utility Ratepayer Bill of Rights” as largely symbolic and insufficient to reduce costs for consumers.

Portelli further claimed that Riley’s proposed “Keep the Lights Local Act,” which would restrict foreign ownership of utility companies, mirrored ideas he had already been promoting publicly before Riley introduced the legislation.