TOO DAMN HIGH!
Charged-up pols blast Con Ed, state regulators over ‘extreme’ rate hikes
City and state lawmakers are amped up over a sudden rate spike that many New Yorkers are now seeing on their Con Ed energy bills — charges that could make it impossible for some to afford rent and their utilities.
Brandy Bora, a corporate executive who rents a loft in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, said her family’s Con Ed bill shot up from $300 in December to $850 last month — an increase, which, if sustained, will mean they’ll eventually be forced to move.
“I don’t even know what to do,” Bora, who lives with her husband and their 6-year-old daughter, told the Daily News on Tuesday. “I literally can’t pay that.”
Bora is especially worried about the summer months, when cooling the apartment is almost sure to cost much more.
“I’m already a high earner,” she said. “I can’t make more money.”
Tiffany Chu, a landlord who owns a building in Greenpoint, told The News her Con Ed electricity bill jumped from about $73 in December to more than $350 last month, with her kilowatt-hour rate climbing from 6 cents to 18 cents over the same period.
“It seems like everyone in this area is experiencing it,” Chu said, adding that she’s been trying to contact Con Ed for a week, with no luck. “You cannot reach a live person.”
The massive increase isn’t only being felt in their neighborhood, though.
City Councilman Lincoln Restler said the rest of Brooklyn is seeing it in their bills, too, and state Senate Deputy Majority Leader Michael Gianaris said it’s socking his Queens constituents as well.
Both Democratic lawmakers are so distressed over the calls they’ve been getting from residents that they demanded Tuesday that the state Public Service Commission direct the Department of Public Service to investigate the sudden and precipitous rate hikes.
“The extreme overnight increases in our constituents’ energy bills are simply outrageous,” Restler said. “It’s the commission’s job to protect New Yorkers when utility companies try to pass on fluctuations in the marketplace on to consumers, and we urgently need the PSC to intervene.”
Restler, who represents Greenpoint and Williamsburg, was joined by Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso and 13 other Brooklyn City Council members in making his demand for an official probe.
In a letter dated Tuesday to PSC Chairman Rory Christian, they write that they are “deeply concerned” about constituents’ reports of bills doubling and even tripling in just a month, and that an investigation is needed to get to the bottom of it.
They also pointed out that Con Ed is planning a “double-digit rate hike” that could hit consumers
next year on top of the recent price increases.
In a separate letter sent out Tuesday, Gianaris contends that the bill hikes are hurting “thousands of New Yorkers” and that the commission must “work to provide relief to New York’s ratepayers — now.”
“My constituents, no stranger to high energy bills already, have seen their bills increase dramatically by up to 300%,” Gianaris writes in his letter. “The PSC must seek answers.”
Specifically, Gianaris said he wants to know why consumers were not notified in advance of the price increases so they could plan accordingly.
Con Ed spokesman Jamie McShane pointed to a high winter demand for natural gas and fluctuations in the global energy market as prime factors driving the rising prices consumers are now seeing.
But even without that, Con Ed’s electricity prices are among the highest of any major utility company in the U.S., aside from those in Alaska and Hawaii, according to data put out by the U.S. Energy Information Administration last fall.
Restler and his fellow Brooklyn lawmakers acknowledge in their letter that recent fluctuations in gas prices are — at least in part — to blame for the higher bills. But they also argue that utilities like Con Ed “are supposed to hedge to smooth the swings in supply costs.”
McShane countered that Con Ed cannot control the practices of the companies it buys gas from.
“Con Edison does not generate electricity, nor can we manage the financial practices of the private power generators or the suppliers of the natural gas,” he said. “Con Edison is seeking the ability to generate renewable energy in New York State for our customers, which would shift our dependence away from natural gas and this volatility.”
James Denn, a spokesman for the Public Service Commission, said that the PSC “does not regulate commodity or supply prices” and that utilities “do not set supply costs and do not make a profit on the supply.”
“To address the increase in supply prices, Gov. Hochul recently announced that more than $373 million in home heating aid will be available for low- and middle-income New Yorkers who need assistance keeping their homes warm during the winter season,” he said.
“Additionally, Gov. Hochul has made $150 million in federal funding available to help low-income households pay heating utility arrears if they do not qualify for that assistance under New York’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program.”
But others believe Hochul is not doing enough. Bill Ferris, a state legislative representative for AARP New York, is among them.
“AARP is concerned this spike in natural gas prices will only worsen the state’s utility arrears crisis. Rising utility bills are hurting older New Yorkers not only in New York City but across the state as they continue to feel the economic effects of COVID-19,” Ferris said. “Since the pandemic began, energy utility arrears have risen by $1 billion. AARP is disappointed that Gov. Hochul has failed to address this crisis in her budget proposal, even as the state’s budget plan is running surpluses.”
Denn would not say whether the state would investigate the recent Con Ed bill increases, but noted that the Department of Public Service plans to scrutinize the rate hike the utility has proposed for 2023.