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**FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE**
January 8, 2007
Contact: John Collins
212.669.4193; 917.496.4587
Release #: 002-2008
Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum - Statement on Consolidated Edison’s Proposed Rate Hike
"I strongly recommend that the Public Service Commission reject Consolidated Edison’s proposed $1.2 billion rate hike. The reasons are simple and straightforward: Con Ed doesn’t deserve it and New Yorkers can’t afford it.
"New Yorkers across our city face a series of serious, in some cases, daunting challenges right now.
"Middle class families are struggling to keep their homes as the subprime foreclosure meltdown grows and grows. Foreclosures are projected to exceed 14,000 in New York City in 2007 - a 54 percent increase over 2006. And this problem is going to get worse before it gets better.
"The rising cost of home heating oil and energy are already causing seniors to make choices that no senior – no New Yorker – should ever have to make.
"The last thing New Yorkers can afford is another fare hike from Con Ed.
"What’s even more troubling, is that Con Ed seems to have a pattern of inflating their proposed hikes with the goal of milking New Yorkers for everything they can get.
"Now, Con Ed says that they need the additional resources to strengthen and improve the city’s aging electrical system. And of course, New York deserves to have the most up-to-date, advanced electrical grid in the world. But New Yorkers should not be forced to carry the heavy load of paying for this grid when time and again Con Ed has failed to maintain its equipment.
"It appears to me that New Yorkers are being forced to pay for the cost of Con Ed’s poor decisions. That’s wrong. And it shouldn’t happen. Period.
"Again, I strongly recommend that the PSC reject this proposed rate hike and hold Con Ed accountable and responsible for their decisions."
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