Accounting errors came to light as state regulators investigated National Grid's request for a $400 million increase in electric rates.
View full sizeA state Senate committee will hold a hearing Oct. 19 on National Grid's accounting practices. The company has included wine-shipping costs, private school tuition and other inappropriate costs in its proposed electric rates.Syracuse, NY - The state Senate energy committee has scheduled a hearing next month to question National Grid about its inclusion of wine-shipping costs, private school tuition and other inappropriate costs in its proposed electric rates, Chairman George Maziarz, R-Newfane, announced today.
Maziarz said committee members want to hear National Grid’s plans to correct what the company acknowledges were accounting mistakes.
The hearing will be at 10 a.m. Oct. 19 in Hearing Room A of the Legislative Office Building in Albany.
The accounting errors came to light as state regulators investigated National Grid’s request for a $400 million increase in electric rates. The Public Service Commission is scheduled to rule on the request in January.
Maziarz said the rate case should be postponed. “How can we even contemplate rate hikes when this cloud is hanging over the whole process?” he said in a prepared statement.
The PSC has announced plans to investigate National Grid’s internal accounting practices, but has not suspended the company’s rate case.
U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., Tuesday called on National Grid to withdraw its rate request pending the outcome of the PSC investigation.
Contact Tim Knauss at tknauss@syracuse.com or 470-3023.