US President Donald Trump said he talked about the need for New York utility Consolidated Edison Inc. to lower rates during a meeting with New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani at the White House.
"We've gotten fuel prices way down, but it hasn't shown up in Con Edison, and we are gonna have to talk to them," Trump told reporters at the Oval Office on Friday. "We have to get Con Edison to start lowering the rates."
Shares of ConEd fell as much as 1.4% after Trump made his remarks.
"We recognise affordability is a critical issue and work every day to balance the investments needed for resilience and reliability with customer costs," a company spokesman said in an emailed statement. "We welcome the opportunity to partner with the Mayor-elect on solutions that make New York affordable for everyone."
High utility bills emerged as a key issue in the weeks leading to Mamdani's victory — and now threatens the Republican majority in the House of Representatives in next year's mid-term elections. Democrats in New Jersey, Virginia and even Georgia all won on the matter of affordability this month.
ConEd's original proposal to raise electric bills by more than 11% starting in January and natural gas rates by more than 10% has drawn criticism from New York City residents as well as from officials including Governor Kathy Hochul. Earlier this month, ConEd along with the staff of state regulators and other parties issued a proposal to limit increases to about 2.8% annually for electric bills and 2% for gas bills from 2026 through 2028.
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