PSC Grants Con Ed 5 Percent Rate Increase

By Linda J. Wilson 

Starting next month, households in New York City, including in Queens, will pay some $4.25 more for power delivered by Consolidated Edison. The ruling by the Public Service Commission (PSC), whose members are appointed, means the average city resident's $70 monthly power bill will rise by about 5 percent. In Westchester County, typical residential customers, most of whom get their power from Con Ed, will pay about $5.60 a month more.
The increase, considerably less than the 11.8 percent Con Ed originally sought, is the fourth in four years, The new rates take effect April 1 and are good only for one year, and Con Ed can be expected to file a new request for a rate increase as soon as next month. The increase applies only to the company’s charges for the delivery of power. The cost of the power itself, which accounts for more than 60 percent of the typical customer’s bill, is determined separately.

The PSC said Con Ed was entitled to charge more for a $1.65 billion program to improve its aging grid system, which brought about a 10-day blackout in Queens in July of 2006. Con Ed’s string of recent failures has drawn heated criticism from area elected officials.

Assemblymember Michael Gianaris

Assemblymember Michael Gianaris (D-Astoria) is the leading advocate for reform of Con Edison and has worked tirelessly to advance legislation requiring the monopoly to be more accountable to its customers, authoring legislation requiring Con Edison to face competition and greater oversight. Following the 2006 blackout in Queens that left more than 170,000 residents and businesses without power, Gianaris headed a task force dedicated to reforming Con Edison that resulted in dozens of recommendations. He agrees the electricity infrastructure in New York is in a state of disrepair, but opposes any rate hikes unless Con Edison is reformed and is no longer an unaccountable monopoly.

He denounced the PSC decision as “profoundly irresponsible” and “one of the most outrageous fleecings of ratepayers in modern memory”. He declared, “To approve the highest rate increase in history without insisting on any of the dramatic reforms necessary to fix Con Edison’s management is the height of irresponsibility.

“This is a shameful cycle. Con Edison asks for more money to make improvements, the PSC approves rate hikes, Con Edison's investors reap higher and higher dividends, and New Yorkers are left with the same substandard and dangerous service. This is nothing more than government-sanctioned highway robbery.”

City Councilmember Eric Gioia

 

 

 

City Councilmember Eric Gioia, many of whose constituents were severely affected by the 2006 blackout, agreed. “The PSC has failed the people of New York once again. It’s a broken system where Con Ed asks for an outrageous sum and the Public Service Commission settles by giving them just an absurd amount.  But when New Yorkers are struggling for every dollar and already overpaying on their electric bills, any increase is too much.  The PSC has their priorities wrong. They're protecting Con Ed executives, rather than the people of New York.”

 

 

 

 

City Councilmember Peter Vallone Jr.

 

City Councilmember Peter Vallone Jr., chairman of the City Council Public Safety Committee, whose Astoria district suffered widespread power outages at the height of the July 2006 heat wave, also expressed strong disapproval of both the utility and the PSC, which granted the rate increase. “Con Ed is a convicted felon who left this neighborhood in the dark for nine days, from which we still have not fully recovered,” he said. “What would they have to do for the PSC not to grant them a rate increase, kill women and puppies? Wait--they’ve already done that, too. By failing to do 15 years of oversight, they have failed to protect the public’s safety, and now they’ve failed to protect the public’s wallet. We need to hold the state accountable.”

 

 

 

Senator George Onorato

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“I am outraged at this latest rate increase. Reaching into our pockets by Con Ed is not justified,” state Senator George Onorato, whose district includes Astoria and Long Island City, said.