It's only going to get worse, you dunce.
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gooder and harder
Long Island Rep. Tom Suozzi is blasting Con Edison for its “unreasonable” plans to hike utility bills for its 3.5 million customers in the New York metropolitan area by as much as 19% next year.
“New Yorkers already have some of the most expensive electric and gas bills in the nation,” Suozzi the Democrat who is launching a long-shot bid for the party nomination for governor this year, wrote in a letter to Con Ed obtained by The Post.
“Asking my constituents to swallow a dramatic, single year increase to their electric and gas bill is unreasonable when they already pay nearly 50% more than the average U.S. household.”
The utility is asking state regulators for permission to hike residents’ electric bills by 11.2%, while gas would cost a whopping 18.2% more starting next year.
The company says that the hikes are necessary in order to fund “investments in clean energy, as well as infrastructure upgrades that will help keep customers in service during severe weather.”
Suozzi told the Post that he supports transitioning to green energy, but local utilities shouldn’t be able to pass on the cost to consumers without the federal government stepping in and helping ease the financial burden.
“I’m a big environmentalist,” the former Nassau County executive told The Post. “But if New York continues to go on its own without the help of federal policy, we’re going to see increasing rates like this and that’s going to chase people out of the state and they’re going to pollute somewhere else.”
He said there needed to be a “balance” between addressing environmental issues in a way that wouldn’t “crush” rate-payers.
Suozzi should cheer up: England, which has shuttered most of its conventional energy production in favor of windmills and hot air, is due for a 38% hike in electricity rates; Long Island won’t see that kind of carnage for oh, say, another four or five years, as the costs of green mandates accelerate.
