Statement from Senator Michelle Hinchey on Governor’s Utility Oversight Actions

The Governor’s call for DPS to deny Con Edison’s rate hike and audit utility executive pay is a huge win for ratepayers in the service territory—frankly, it’s historic to see this level of support from a governor on utility reform. But it begs a glaring question: Why didn’t Hudson Valley ratepayers get the same when Central Hudson was found guilty of its billing failures, hit with one of the highest judgments in DPS history, and was still allowed a significant rate increase? We’ve been fighting this fight for over five years, and our region deserves the same urgency. 

“Utility companies have mastered the game—inflate their ask, obscure the numbers, and almost like a formula, walk away with the rate hike they wanted all along. It’s a disturbingly broken process that forces customers to pay more for less while private, investor-owned monopolies protect their bottom line. That’s why we passed Senator Shelley Mayer’s bill to take “the game” out of the rate request process altogether, and we need the Assembly to follow suit. We can’t be at the whims of the news cycle to dictate utility oversight; we need systemic reform, and we’ll keep pushing for it with the bills we have coming forward.”