Your gas bill will stop paying for new homes' gas hookups

For about 40 years, a state rule called the “100-foot rule” made New York gas utilities run up to 100 feet of new gas line to a new customer for free. The cost didn’t disappear. It went into everyone’s gas bills, so existing customers paid for new homes’ hookups, along with the profit utilities earn on that investment. Estimates of the yearly cost range from about $200 million, from Environmental Advocates New York, to $600 million, from the bill’s Senate sponsor.

This law ends that subsidy for homes. Starting December 19, 2026, whoever applies for new residential gas service pays the full cost of materials and installation, which some estimates put at $2,500 to $10,000 per home. Utilities still have to connect anyone who asks. You don’t have to do anything: the savings come from costs that no longer get added to everyone’s bills.

Sen. Liz Krueger and Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon carried the bill. The Senate passed it 34–25 in June 2025, and the Assembly passed it four days later. Republicans urged a veto, calling it a cost shift onto families building new homes. Gov. Kathy Hochul signed it on December 19, 2025. At her request, a 2026 follow-up law changed the start date to one year after the original law was signed, giving the Public Service Commission time to write billing rules.