Con Edison Rate Increase Request Has Residents Steaming

On social media and wherever people gather, people are complaining about their higher-than-ever Con Ed bills. and to make matters worse, the utility wants to raise gas and  elec­tric rates.

Sources estimate rate payers are looking at anywhere from an 11.4% to 18% electric rate increase, a res­i­den­tial electric de­liv­ery charges hike of 25%, and nat­ural gas de­liv­ery rate increases of 13.3-19%.

Naturally, dissent was the name of the game at the New York State Dept. of Public Service’s (NYSDPS)  two virtual hearings last week to hear from residents and local officials.

“This to me is cor­po­rate greed and theft and they should­n’t be al­lowed to get away with it,” said a Mt. Pleas­ant man. “This is ba­si­cally gut­ting the mid­dle class. This is pre­pos­ter­ous. This is in­cred­i­bly in­sane.”

Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins testified, “I am here on be­half of all work­ing-class fam­i­lies, se­niors on fixed in­comes, and small busi­ness own­ers who are al­ready do­ing every­thing they can to make ends meet. Forc­ing peo­ple to choose be­tween heat­ing their homes and buy­ing gro­ceries is not just bad pol­icy—it’s un­ac­cept­able.

The utility has said it needs ap­prox­i­mately $1.6 bil­lion more in elec­tric rev­enue and ap­prox­i­mately $440 mil­lion in gas rev­enue “to fund the in­vest­ments nec­es­sary for a safe and re­li­able clean en­ergy fu­ture.”

According to a release from NYS Senator Shelley Mayer (37th Dist.) 38 cities, towns, and villages in Westchester County are forming a municipal consortium, with legal representation,  to oppose the latest proposed rate increases.

According to Mayer’s office, those municipalities include Ardsley, Bedford, Briarcliff, Buchanan, Cortlandt, Croton-on-Hudson, Dobbs Ferry, Eastchester, Elmsford, Greenburgh, Hastings-on-Hudson, Irvington, Mamaroneck Town, Mamaroneck Village, Mt. Vernon, New Castle, New Rochelle, Ossining Town, Ossining Village, Peekskill, Pelham Manor, Pelham Town, Pelham Village, Port Chester, Rye Brook, Rye City, Rye Town, Scarsdale, Tarrytown, Yonkers, and Yorktown.

Larchmont is not on this list, but Larchmont Mayor Sarah Bauer says the issue is on its Board agenda for April 21.

In February, a protest against rate hikes drew several dozen Con Edison customers to the Westchester County Center, where some people brought bills of over $1000.

Con Edi­son serves more than nine mil­lion peo­ple in Westch­ester and New York City