Empire Center’s Energy Data Bulletin shows New York households paid the third-highest residential electricity prices in the country in May 2026, trailing only Hawaii and California.The latest U.S. Energy Information Administration data put New York’s residential electricity prices at 29.93 cents per kilowatt-hour in May 2026.
“Third highest in the nation is not where New York should want to be on electricity prices,” said Zilvinas Silenas, president of the Empire Center. “If this is affordability, New Yorkers cannot afford it.”
New York’s prices rose 12 percent from a year earlier, twice the rate of increase for the U.S. average.
New York’s prices are 62 percent higher than the national average, nearly double Florida’s and more than 80 percent higher than Texas’s. Households in neighboring New Jersey and Pennsylvania paid lower prices, at 23.27 cents/kWh and 21.55 cents/kWh, respectively.
“New York’s energy policy is contributing to the higher costs we have warned about for years,” said Silenas.
New York’s average residential natural gas prices were 15 percent above the national average and ranked 19th highest in the U.S.
Read the August release of the Energy Data Bulletin here.
The Empire Center, based in Albany, is an independent, not-for-profit, non-partisan think tank dedicated to promoting policies that can make New York a better place to live, work and raise a family.
Visit EmpireCenter.org to learn more.