A vice president at CenterState CEO spoke in favor of the rate hike.
View full sizeLaura Brazak (right), of Syracuse, and Mike Donnelly, a Green Party candidate for state Assembly, attend the first National Grid rate hike hearing Tuesday. SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Not many people came out Tuesday to support National Grid’s request for a $361 million electric rate hike. Speaker after speaker told state regulators at two public hearings in Syracuse that consumers are already struggling with high utility bills, especially in this economic climate.
But there was one notable exception. The region’s leading economic development group gave a thumbs up to National Grid’s rate increase.
Deborah Warner, vice president for public policy and government relations at CenterState CEO, told representatives of the state Public Service Commission they should approve the increase, which would boost the utility’s regulated delivery revenues by about 18 percent.
Warner praised National Grid’s efforts to support local business development. And she pointed out that the utility has hired new workers for a “transactions delivery center” in downtown Syracuse, to handle back-office work for the company’s U.S. subsidiaries. “Because there is a strong return on investment of National Grid resources in our region, we urge you to support their rate request,” Warner said.
Warner was the only one among 27 speakers to explicitly endorse the rate hike, although one other speaker praised the utility's community involvement.
Most speakers, like Ann Reynolds, of Syracuse, said utility bills are already too high. “Right now, I can’t afford medications I need because I have to pay my utility bill,” Reynolds said.
William Bouteiller, an administrative law judge at the PSC, listened for nearly three hours Tuesday as speakers commented on the National Grid rate request. Bouteiller held hearings at 4 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. at the downtown Criminal Courts Building.
The later hearing, in particular, erupted repeatedly with cheers and applause when speakers denounced National Grid, which many referred to as “National Greed.”
View full sizeAnn Reynolds (right), of Syracuse, and Jill Smith, of the town of Macomb, attend the National Grid rate hike hearing in Syracuse on Tuesday. “I want to send them back to where they came from,” said Louise Poindexter, of Syracuse. “National Greed needs to go home.”
Several speakers said the time has come for Syracuse to reconsider creating a municipal power company. Hobart College physics professor Steve Penn, a longtime member of the Central New York Public Power Coalition, said a public utility would be accountable to residents.
A rate hike for National Grid sends profits overseas, Penn said. “In an area that’s already being bled dry, that money is going not just to other parts of the country but to other parts of the world,” Penn said.
Interest in public power has simmered in Syracuse for years. Common Councilor Lance Denno, speaking at Tuesday’s hearing, said it’s time to revisit the issue. “We may need to take a page from Jimmy McMillan’s playbook and create a new political party — the Electric Rates Are Too Damn High Party,” Denno said.
National Grid’s rate request has been criticized by staff accountants and other experts who work at the PSC. The PSC staff has recommended a rate increase of no more than $40 million, about one-ninth of what National Grid requests.
Initially, National Grid asked for $391 million and the PSC staff recommended a decrease of $14 million, but both sides have modified their positions several times since then.
Bouteiller and another administrative law judge, Rudy Stegemoeller, are likely to issue a recommended decision to the PSC in November, although that is not a requirement. With or without a recommendation from the judges, the five-member commission is scheduled to rule on the rates in January.
“Please look out for us,” said Mercedes Bloodworth, a speaker at the PSC hearing. “We’re asking you today to step up to the plate and do what you were hired to do.”
» Want to read more? Check out the transcript of our live coverage of both hearings