Update: Fighting Con Edison’s Rate Hikes in Westchester

State Senator Shelley Mayer is looking for allies in her fight with Con Edison and she thinks crushing utility bills of this past winter may be her best recruitment tool. “We are at the end of the third year of a three-year rate increase,” she said says. “The current situation is intolerable.”

Senator Mayer appeared recently on my radio show “Tough Times with Lou Young,” on WRCR & wrcr.com. She reminded us that she strongly objected to the rate hike package before the Public Service Commission three years ago.

“I opposed it and testified but it doesn’t seem to matter,” she told me. Now the utility is back asking for another 3-year hike.

NY State Senator Shelley Mayer

She says the ratepayers she hears from have had enough. “They don’t increase their use,” she explains, “but the delivery charges go up substantially. There are costs built into that delivery charge and I think the process is very flawed.”

Mayer has consistently objected to the high salaries executives at Con Ed receive and the large advertising budgets that are funded by ratepayers. “It’s a monopoly,” she complains. “They are regulated and that should mean rates should be reasonable”

Senator Mayer has a three-pronged strategy to limit the next round of rate increases. First, she says “I’m urging every municipality and Westchester County to intervene,” meaning to declare a vested interest in the rate hike. Secondly, she’s urging a public pressure campaign. “E mail the PSC and tell them these carrying charges are unacceptable,” she says. Thirdly she is pushing a legislative package in Albany to remove costs like “excessive salaries, advertising, and lobbying” from the ratepayer side of company operations. Those costs, she insists should come out of the utility’s profits.

Of Con Edison she notes: “They treat their shareholders well, but shareholders should be second to the ratepayers.”
 

UPDATE: At their Monday (March 24) Meeting the Village of Mamaroneck Board of Trustees agreed to kick in $5K for its share of an attorney to represent area municipalities and the Westchester County in opposing the rate hikes.