Against National Grid, for public power

Last year, National Grid showed its downstate customers what an investor-owned utility is capable of when its profits are threatened. Faced with the growing movement to stop the Williams Pipeline — a lucrative project that would have virtually assured that state climate goals couldn’t be met — National Grid misleadingly claimed a gas shortage and refused thousands of ratepayers gas hookups to push regulators into approving the project.

People suffered, and for naught: Gov. Cuomo called National Grid’s bluff, the pipeline was defeated, and the company was sent back to the drawing board $36 million poorer.

What came of all of this? As it turns out, not much. The company has continued to claim a gas shortage, push for climate-killing gas infrastructure, and attempt to raise customer bills to pay for it all. They’re even continuing to work without approved funding on the widely loathed MRI pipeline in North Brooklyn, which would run predominantly through Black and Brown communities, hellbent on finishing the project before they’re made to stop.

Much of the blame lies with the state’s Public Service Commission (PSC). In November, the PSC opened a proceeding that should have redressed the grievances of those affected by the gas moratorium. Public feedback on National Grid’s long-term energy proposals was to provide the basis for a decision that would help to determine the region’s energy future. Thousands of comments were filed opposing gas expansion and endorsing renewable alternatives. More than 800 people attended the virtual meetings, in the thick of the pandemic.

But it looks to have all been mere theater. Rather than make a decision on long-term infrastructure in that public proceeding as it said it would, giving closure to jerked-around ratepayers, the PSC seems to have instead moved the discussion into National Grid’s confidential rate negotiations, where none of the 9,000 public comments filled in the other case will be considered.

A possible reason? The company has been losing millions due to the pandemic, and profits are at stake. Getting lucrative infrastructure approved is more important than ever. And if the PSC were going to greenlight such widely opposed projects, paid for by higher customer bills, it makes sense that it would want to do so behind closed doors.

Negotiations in that case are ongoing. But one thing appears clear: Unless Cuomo or Mayor de Blasio stands up for New Yorkers in the rate proceedings, ratepayers will likely be the ones making up for the company’s losses; National Grid’s shareholders — even as thousands struggle to pay their gas bills during the pandemic — won’t be sacrificing a dime.

Part of what is driving National Grid’s tactics of late is desperation caused by its business model. In the downstate area, the company provides gas but not electricity. Yet the future of all thermal energy is undeniably electric because electricity can be greened. National Grid thus has every interest in delaying that transition by locking in even more gas infrastructure and gas use. As one National Grid executive put it, getting customers to shift to alternate fuels is “obviously not something [we] had been advocating for” since it isn’t “our business.”

What is its business, then, is climate denial. How else to see its efforts to market fracked gas — which, when the industry’s widespread leaks are taken into account, is worse for the climate than burning coal — as “clean?” And how else to understand the company’s long-term projections? Whereas

New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act requires statewide emissions to be cut to 60% of 1990 levels by 2030, National Grid in 2030 — according to a recent report — plans to have actually increased peak-day gas usage by 13%.

This madness must stop. We cannot allow our climate goals to go unmet just because of corporate and regulatory shoulder-shrugging. We cannot allow utilities to continue building projects like the MRI pipeline against community consent. And we cannot continue forcing captive ratepayers to subsidize a melting, flooding and burning future that they have no interest in inhabiting.

It is true that outdated laws like the “100foot rule” — which incentivizes gas use over renewables by requiring National Grid to provide a free gas connection to customers who request it — are also impediments here. They must be amended. But as hindrances to real climate action, they pale in comparison to the profit motive. If we are to have any hope of reducing our emissions while protecting ratepayers, then that motive must be removed. People must be put first. Too much is at stake for it to be otherwise. The time for a public takeover of National Grid is now.

Gallagher is running to represent parts of Brooklyn in the state Assembly. Salazar represents parts of Brooklyn in the state Senate.

The disclosure that Mayor de Blasio’s office has been negotiating purchasing the Reliant school bus company is a fiscally challenged decision when viewed in the light of the city’s perilous financial state. Having initially pleaded poverty to the UFT’s $900 million payout, and sought state legislative borrowing authority, the mayor’s inability to date to wield a significant budget cutting scalpel is painfully obvious. That the bus company is a political supporter of the mayor’s political ambitions, and when so many DOE students are learning remotely, suggests a flawed approach to the use of city capital monies during the coronavirus pandemic. It now appears that we live in a city for sale, in which political royalty trumps sound government.

Roger B. Adler

Now we know what’s really important and why there are so many miscarriages of justice in this country. David Boies, attorney for many of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims, said, “The Manhattan U.S. Attorney in the Jeffrey Epstein case couldn’t be seen as second-guessing what the U.S. Attorney in Florida had done.” Be reminded that the Florida attorney was Alex Acosta, who was given a position in the present chaotic administration running this country, and resigned after the sordid details of the Florida slap on the wrist of Epstein was revealed. Despicable in every sense of the word.

Janet Cecin

Amazing speech in Iowa from our President Donald Trump. Thousands cheered and showed their love and support for him. When Joe Biden speaks, it’s like a tree falling in the forest — no one is there to hear it. Not even the birds. Four more years

To Voicer Frank Mauceri: Nancy Pelosi never had the intention to use the 25th Amendment on President Donald Trump. She floats this now, while Trump’s in office, to get her followers and the uninformed on board. If Biden wins, boom! He’s senile and unfit. Then she pulls the trigger, exercising the 25th and you have President Kamala Harris. Considering Harris got near zero percent support in the Democratic primaries, that’s the only way to get her into office. Evil genius. Jeff Applegate

Attorney General William Barr, hoping for an October surprise to help his client in the White House, appointed U.S. Attorney John Bash to investigate Barack Obama and Joe Biden for spying on Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign. To his chagrin, the investigation was a tremendous nothing-burger, as satisfying as Geraldo Rivera’s opening of Al Capone’s vault many years ago. Vin Morabito

The Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee were no match for the unflappable Amy Coney Barrett, who ran circles around their impetuous demands that she answer highly

South Carolina why would you want Sen. Lindsey Graham reelected? He is not doing anything to get you a stimulus package, which a lot of you need. Wake up, South Carolina!

To Voicer Jim Anderson: Check out Wikipedia, “Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937.” And to Voicer Philip J. Martone about Netflix: No, you’re not.