Skoufis blasts PSC approved rates for O&R customers

ALBANY – The State Public Service Commission Thursday adopted a three-year rate increase plan for electric and natural gas customers of Orange and Rockland Utilities.

State Senator James Skoufis (D, Cornwall) blasted the PSC for “doing a self-congratulatory ‘victory’ lap for claiming to have cut the increases.”

The lawmaker did not mince words. “I’m calling for them to cut the BS and admit they are a pathetic excuse for a regulatory body.”
PSC Chairman Rory Christian said a negotiated settlement makes it able to “drastically minimize any rate increase for customers.”

Instead of granting the full amount, the commission adopted no increase in revenues for the first year for electricity, although the typical residential customer will see a bill increase of 4.6 percent. O&R originally wanted $18.1 million in revenues, and it adopted a first year “levelized gas increase” of “only” $10.5 million, about 30 percent less than the $14.4 million originally requested.

The new rates will take effect in just over a week from now on April 1.

This will be the first proceeding for the company in three years; however, that does not mean there were no rate increases during those years. 

Under the new arrangement, typical residential electric customers will experience bill increases of 4.6 percent, 3.3 percent, and 3.5 percent, and typical residential gas heating customers will see bill increases of 10.9 percent, 3.5 percent, and 3.8 percent.

Skoufis said he is “disgusted” with O&R, the PSC and other utilities like Central Hudson. “Their behavior is tantamount to highway robbery and requires a comprehensive, swift response by the state.”

He called for a complete and immediate overhaul of the PSC. “All of the top so-called regulators must be removed and the process by which utilities receive rate hikes needs wholesale reform.”

Skoufis, who heads up the Senate investigations committee, said he is “sick and tired of utility shareholders getting rich off ratepayers” and he called on the state legislature to cap utility profits, “dramatically reduce utility executives’ salaries, and be audited by an independent third-party, among other reforms.”

He said other lawmakers, including Senator Shelley Mayer (D, Westchester) are as fed up with the status quo as he is, and they will be pursuing other proposals in the days ahead.