ALBANY — To help New Yorkers afford their energy bills, state Assembly Republicans want to provide $2 billion in rebate checks for low and middle-income families, an annual refund of any ratepayer money set aside and not spent for climate investments, a recommitment to spending on retired gas plants and investments in new natural gas-driven power plants.

Under the leadership of newly elected minority leader Edward P. Ra, R-Franklin Square, and his newly selected Energy Committee ranking member Assemblyman Scott A. Gray, R-Watertown, Republicans have put together a legislative package that would also reverse a number of requirements laid out in the 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. The GOP has long pilloried that act as a major driver for the increasing power bills hitting New Yorker’s mailboxes these last few years. They call their legislative package the LOWER Plan.

“The Assembly Republican Conference is here to deliver real, immediate help to households getting crushed by costs and to pave the way for New York to address real supply issues that threaten to do even more damage in the long term,” Ra said.

That package includes a $2 billion rebate program, paid for by the state, that would send checks to low and middle-income New Yorkers with the aim of helping them replace some of the money they’ve spent on higher energy bills already.

Additionally, the GOP conference is backing a bill that would require that the New York Energy Research and Development Authority return all annual funds taken from the utilities and put into their Climate Investment account be returned to ratepayers as a bill credit each year. The GOP lawmakers estimate there’s about $2.4 billion sitting in that account this year.

Ra said that the Republican conference also wants to see the state undo regulations that prevent power producers from reopening closed gas-run power plants, and also to see the CLCPA rules that bar companies from opening up new natural gas-powered plants.

“We need to reassess and reset our energy path for the long term,” Ra said. “We’re proposing to do so by eliminating unworkable energy mandates like the EV school bus requirement or banning gas stoves, and by preserving energy choice, assisting the supply side of the equation.”

Gray, who now will lead the Assembly Republican conference on the issue of energy, said the issue has clearly been caused by the state’s environmental regulations.

“The CLCPA mandates and compressed timelines are creating real affordability and reliability pressures, and New Yorkers are paying for it all along the way,” Gray said. “Let’s be clear, reducing emissions is admirable but ambition without balance has consequences. While we’re increasing demand through electrification mandates, we’re also restricting dependable energy sources before replacements are fully available.”

Gray, and other Republicans, have criticized the state’s energy mandates for its requirement that new buildings be built without natural gas hookups starting January of this year, and that the state’s energy grid cut emissions by 40% by 2030.

The GOP plan laid out on Tuesday also has the backing of Assemblyman Robert J. Smullen, R-Meco, who is running to be the Republican nominee for Congress in New York’s 21st Congressional District. On Tuesday, Smullen said he broadly backs efforts to roll back environmental regulations where it would help with customer bills. He said he backs a specific federal bill, introduced by Buffalo-area Congressman Nick R. Langworthy.

“It’s so critical, it stops state or local governments from banning or restricting natural gas, propane or any reliable energy source based on its type,” Smullen said. “This is federal preemption done right, Congress stepping in to protect citizens from their very own state government.”

While this package from the Assembly GOP has their backing, it’s unlikely that these bills will get a vote in the Democratic-led state Assembly, which has not moved to significantly change the state’s climate laws since passing them.