Statement on Joint Proposal in Response to Central Hudson Rate Case

Proceeding on Motion of the Commission as to the Rates, Charges, Rules and Regulations of: CASE 20-G-0429 Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corporation

CITIZENS FOR LOCAL POWER STATEMENT ON THE JOINT PROPOSAL

Susan H. Gillespie President of the Board POB 3013

Kingston, NY 12471

Tel.: 845-658-9820

Email: susan.h.gillespie@gmail.com September 21, 2021

BEFORE THE NEW YORK STATE

PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION

Introduction

Citizens for Local Power (“CLP”) is a party to these rate cases and participated actively in settlement negotiations that resulted in the Joint Proposal (“JP”) executed on August 24, 2021. Although we elected not to sign the JP, we want to express appreciation to all the parties for their contributions to the process, for the generally constructive dialogue that characterized negotiations, and for achieving consensus and compromise in some important areas where agreement did not previously exist. As a non-profit organization dedicated to helping communities in the mid-Hudson region transition to a locally based clean energy economy, CLP sought in this rate case to address issues of significant impact to our municipalities, residents, and small businesses, and to ensure that the rate design and utility programs support objectives of affordability, equity, and sustainability – both economic sustainability as our society emerges from a damaging and painful pandemic, and environmental sustainability as we confront a climate crisis that is worsening daily as a result of anthropogenic warming of the earth’s atmosphere due to the burning of fossil fuels. In this statement, we wish to comment on provisions of the JP that relate to some of the issues we had raised in our direct testimony and had further explored through interrogatories and during the confidential negotiation process.

In the following, we will first respond to those matters where we feel that the JP responds adequately to the challenges of this moment (rate decreases/increases; Spanish language; response to the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (“CLCPA”) I – Gas Sales Targeting a Reduction of Greenhouse Gas Emissions).

Subsequently, we will describe the areas in which CLP believes the JP fails to respond adequately to the demands of the climate crisis or the economic circumstances faced by its customers (Response to the CLCPA II – Leak-Prone Pipe; Response to the CLCPA III – Distribution Investments; Finances – Rewarding the Shareholders at the Expense of Ratepayers’ Future; Debt Relief).

Rate Decreases/Increases

CLP welcomes the unusual rate decrease that Central Hudson’s customers will experience during Year I of the new three-year rate period. It is surely appropriate given the devastating impacts of the pandemic on individuals’ and businesses ability to pay.

The savings that were made available for Year I were actually spread out over the three years of the rate case, thus reducing the potential savings in Year I but keeping the forecasted average bill increases for Years II and III relatively modest. We support this decision in the interest of providing ratepayers with more predictable costs. As a result, average projected residential electrical rates are due to decline $.33 per month in year I, and will increase $1.72 and $1,82, respectively, in years II and III. Unfortunately, the JP foresees no corresponding decrease in residential gas bills, which are projected to increase by $1.64, $2.17, and $1.50 per month, respectively.

We particularly welcome the provision in the JP that, in keeping with the Energy Affordability Order of August 12, 2021, expands eligibility for the HEAP program to include federal Lifeline program recipients. This will consequently help keep winter home heating bills down for those low- and middle-income customers who are dependent on gas heating.

Spanish Language

CLP, which raised this issue in the course of the rate case, welcomes the Company’s explicit commitment to provide Spanish-language informational materials and bills to its customers who require them. As detailed in Appendix Z of the Joint Proposal, Central Hudson is committed to translating its website into Spanish by December 31, 2021, and to providing Spanish forms and letters by the first quarter of 2022.The Company also commits to evaluating the process of providing bills in Spanish by the first quarter of 2022, and to issuing Spanish-language bills to identified customers no later than the second quarter of 2023. We fail to grasp the reasons why this will take so long, particularly given that the utility bill is the Company’s most important means of communication with customers, and is used to convey vital information, such as the fact that customers who have been impacted by Covid-19 may request an additional 180 days of shutoff protection. We earnestly hope that in fact the Company will be able to introduce this important change before the end of this three-year rate case in June 2023.

Response to the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (“CLCPA”)

I. Gas Sales Targeting a Reduction of Greenhouse Gas Emissions

As part of the Joint Settlement, Central Hudson has committed to develop a greenhouse gas emissions reduction plan. As described in JP Appendix BB, the plan will allow the Company to “reduce its greenhouse gas emissions relative to 2019 activity. Factors to be considered will include: Electric and Natural Gas load growth; Potential initiatives to reduce emissions within operations (incorporation of renewables, electrification of fleet, other operational improvements); and Opportunities to influence indirect emissions. The Plan will include Central Hudson’s positive environmental actions and their expected impact relative to 2019 baseline levels.” Specifically, as codified in Appendix BB, “During the period 2021 through 2025, Central Hudson is targeting cumulative savings that equates to approximately 2.5% from 2019 gas sales. These savings will be driven by, and exceed, Central Hudson’s current Energy Efficiency and Heat Pump programs.” In other words, the Company has now formally adopted a specific, legally binding “target” for the reduction of its natural gas sales.

Frankly, this reduction is too little, too late, and the savings will come from efficiencies, rather than from any actual reduction in the Company’s gas business. Nevertheless, the act marks a notable moment in New York utility policy, since,

although NYSEG RG&E recently committed to a zero increase in its natural gas sales, to our knowledge no other New York-based investor-owned utility has committed to reducing gas sales. We welcome this move, and we also welcome the Company’s parallel commitment that “During the period 2021 through 2025, Central Hudson is targeting cumulative savings that equates to approximately 6.9% of 2019 electric sales. These savings will be driven by Central Hudson’s current Energy Efficiency and Heat Pump programs.”

CLP also welcomes the changes to the Company’s website that are reflected in specific detail in Attachment CC of the JP. As just one example, the Company will remove its previous references to natural gas as a “clean” energy source: “Central Hudson will remove and not include language stating that Natural Gas is cleaner or more environmentally friendly, than fuel oil or other fossil fuel.”

Appendices AA – CC, which are attached at the very end of the Joint Proposal, may not be the most obvious thing to catch the eye of the press, or the public, but they contain essential commitments, including target dates for implementation. Although these commitments are not as far-reaching or responsive to climate crisis as CLP would wish them to be, it is important to us and to society that the Company fulfills them as the minimum for which they are held legally and regulatorily responsible.

Response to the CLCPA II – Leak-Prone Pipe

CLP would like to reiterate here the objection, made in our initial Statement, to the scope and scale of the Company’s “leak-prone pipe replacement” plans. We understand that safety is of paramount concern, and that there is pressure from many sides to replace pipe that is old or might fail. Nevertheless, we remain unconvinced that the identification process is adequate to the task at hand, and we feel that the more than

$40 million dollars that will be dedicated to this process every year would be better spent on urgent climate-related changes.

As noted in CLP’s initial Statement, the Company’s own financial expert, John Stewart, described in great and gory detail the danger that its gas infrastructure will become “stranded assets.” As Mr. Stewart argued in that testimony, it is “not tenable” for Central Hudson to invest up to $216 million over the next five years in assets that are destined to become stranded, leaving years of depreciation on the table as a net loss to the Company and its ratepayers. We agree. While it is surely imperative for the Company to promptly and carefully carry out scheduled inspections and respond immediately to observed or reported threats, we do not find it to be reasonable or sensible to continue to quantify the replacement need at 15 miles/year -- or to sanction the Company by awarding negative performance assessments if it fails to reach this arbitrary target.

Response to the CLCPA III – Distribution Investments

A much better use of the millions of dollars that will be spent on “leak-prone pipe” replacement would be a program to identify and build out enhancements to the distribution grid that will allow the interconnection of new local distributed energy resources (“DER”), and/or to reduce the often prohibitive cost of interconnection. The failure to build out the distribution grid is an enormous geopolitical oversight that has not yet been addressed in New York.

Finances – Rewarding the Shareholders at the Expense of Ratepayers’ Future During the continuing pandemic, it is unconscionable for the Company to increase the profit earned by its shareholders. The increase, from 8.8% to 9%, is unwarranted and unnecessary. Other recent rate cases in New York have resulted in reductions in the ROE. In the recent NYSEG RG&E case, for example, the Public Service Commission – in response to widely varying recommendations by the Company and participating parties -- reduced the companies’ ROE from 9.0% to 8.8% (PSC Order of 11-19-2020 in case 19-E-0378). CLP cannot sign on to a Joint Proposal that responds to the severe economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, during which the stock market repeatedly broke historic records and interest rates fell to the lowest levels in decades, by increasing stockholders’ returns on equity.

Debt Relief

Finally, and in our opinion most crucially, CLP cannot sign on to a Joint Proposal that does not include a mechanism for debt relief that commits to meeting the needs of the tens of thousands of customers who, when the moratorium on utility shutoffs expires, will be unable to pay their bills and will be shut off. In February, 2021, Central Hudson had more than 23,000 residential and 2,500 business customers who were 60 days or more behind on their bills and thus would have been subject to cutoff but for the moratorium. The average arrearage of Central Hudson customers who are 60 days or more behind on their bills at that time was more than $660 for residential and $1,600 for business customers. No doubt the amounts have since risen.

In the Affordability case 14-M-0565, DPS staff has recommended that “each major utility should adopt an arrears management plan with the program funding at 10% of its incremental arrearage balance over a two-year budget (outside of the EAP

budget)”1 The PSC has since issued an Order addressing some recommendations from the White Paper, but has not yet acted on arrearages. Meanwhile, it appears from the Company’s response to an Interrogatory submitted by DPS Staff in case 14-M-0565 (DPS-8 IR-019, dated May 7, 2021) that Central Hudson has determined that its new,

1 This quotation is from a staff power point presented March 9, 2021, addressing its white paper in cases 14-M-0565 & 20-M-0266.

million-dollar SAP Customer Information System’s billing program will have no capability for arrears management. Without evidently taking any notice of the gravity of the problem, or of Staff’s recommendation, Central Hudson’s response to the IR states that “Staff’s white paper recommends that the arrears management program is a temporary program and as such, Central Hudson has decided to not implement this program in our new billing system and to instead manage this program manually.” In fairness, it should also be said that the other NY utilities also expressed an inability to get this done at reasonable cost.

In the end, unlike NYSEG RG&E, in its recent rate case, Central Hudson has failed to commit to reinstituting its arrears program, which it ended in 2018. In response to insistent calls for action by PULP, AGREE, CLP, and others, the Company did agree to engage in a “collaborative” process if the PSC has not addressed the customer debt problem by September 15, 2021,2 and 45 days after a collaborative is convened to file a report on “any arrears resolution program that the Company is planning to undertake.” September 15 has now come and gone without a resolution from the PSC, although a Working Group has been established and will meet on September 28 in cases 14-M- 0565 and 20-M-0266. We are not holding our breath – we are organizing to demand what people need and deserve according to the most basic standards of social equity.

In the world’s wealthiest country, it is simply not acceptable for people to be deprived of access to the power they need for housing, illumination, and work – including schoolwork – which is increasingly reliant on virtual connectivity.

Conclusion

CLP appreciates the opportunity to participate in rate case deliberations and takes seriously the obligation to educate and inform the public about what happens there. We thank the other parties and the Company for their efforts to ensure that a civil and responsible dialogue contributes to public understanding and engagement in the interest of a more just society and vitally necessary actions to avert the climate crisis.

Letter to the Editor Regarding Danskammer - Repowering a Risk to NY's Climate Goals

During the week of August 8, two reports came out with good news for opponents of repowering Danskammer – and bad news for all of us if the project is allowed to proceed with plans to provide baseload electricity by burning natural gas or, later, hydrogen. Based on new studies, neither of these methods will meet New York’s climate goals or help salvage our civilization in the face of accelerating climate change. Neither are they likely be profitable, meaning that once again ratepayers could get stuck with the bill. 

First, Standard & Poor released a report stating that “a review of markets with strong renewable mandates and carbon emissions pricing indicates much of the U.S. fleet of recently built natural gas generation could come under pressure…. Market Intelligence estimates that $34 billion in coal plant investment and another $34 billion in new gas plant construction could be at risk.” 

Second, an August 12 NYT article, headlined “For Many, Hydrogen Is the Fuel of the Future. New Research Raises Doubts,” reported on a new study showing that so-called “blue” hydrogen (hydrogen produced using natural gas with carbon capture and storage) would actually produce more greenhouse gases than burning fracked gas by itself. 

There are plenty of other reasons to oppose the repowering plan, including the extreme environmental damage to which the people of Newburgh have already been subjected through PFOS contamination. The new projections should convince the Public Service Commission, which has the final say on the project and is expected to rule soon, that the project is neither fair nor reasonable. The owners of the Danskammer plant – NYC-based Tiger Funds – would do well to head them as well. 

Susan H. Gillespie

President of the Board, Citizens for Local Power

In Central Hudson Rate Case, Environmental Advocates Make Gains - Fuel Reductions, Language Access Improvements, and Rate Hike

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 24, 2021

Environmental and Consumer Advocates Win Fossil Fuel Reductions, Language Access Improvements, and Rate Hike Cutbacks from Central Hudson Utility

After months of negotiations with the Central Hudson Gas and Electric Corporation, public interest groups have achieved commitments from the utility to reduce fracked gas sales, translate the company’s website and customer materials into Spanish, and cut the overall bill increases the company was seeking. 

These commitments are memorialized in a document called a Joint Proposal, which is the outcome of months of negotiations among the utility, state regulators, businesses, local governments, and public interest organizations. The negotiations were kicked off after the utility asked the Public Service Commission (PSC), the state agency that regulates the utilities, for a rate hike. The Joint Proposal is filed publicly on the PSC website and the Commission will vote whether or not to approve the negotiated settlement.

The three-year agreement was negotiated after Central Hudson filed a rate case asking the Public Service Commission to allow it to raise electricity and gas bills by nearly 3%, even amidst a historic economic and climate crisis. Several public interest organizations, including Citizens for Local Power, Alliance for a Green Economy, and the Public Utility Law Project, intervened in the case to oppose the rate hike, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and push for changes in the way the company treats its customers. 

The bill increases were cut back during negotiations, which resulted in an electric bill decrease in the first year and increases of less than 2% per year in subsequent years. Gas bill increases were kept under 2% for all years of the agreement.

“It’s really unusual for a utility to reduce its rates, but surely it is the right thing to do right now, especially since Central Hudson had just received an increase of 4% when the negotiations started in 2020,” said Susan Gillespie, President of the Board of Citizens for Local Power. “Thankfully, the negotiations actually resulted in an even bigger decrease for customers who receive HEAP (Home Energy Affordability Program) benefits, and the list of rate-payers who are eligible for the lower rates is being expanded to include Telephone Lifeline recipients. We are delighted that this proved possible thanks to the involvement of so many groups who intervened to defend customer interests at this critical moment.” 

Responding to climate concerns raised by the various parties, Central Hudson has agreed to become the first utility in New York that plans to reduce its overall gas sales through energy efficiency, renewable heating, and other methods. The company, which has about 309,000 electric and 84,000 gas customers, agreed to reduce gas sales by 2.5% from 2019 levels over the next four years and to remove claims that gas is more environmentally friendly than oil from its website. The company also agreed to achieve greater electricity efficiency savings.

“We hope this truly is a turning point for utilities in New York,” said Jessica Azulay, Executive Director of Alliance for a Green Economy (AGREE). “In a world with relentless wildfires, floods, and heat waves, we have less than a decade to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We are angry and disillusioned that those charged with protecting the public, like the Public Service Commission, don’t require gas utilities to reduce fossil fuel sales, yet we continue to fight for a livable planet. We commend Central Hudson for working with the intervenors and taking this initial step toward climate action.”  

After being criticized by local organizations about its treatment and communications with Spanish speaker customers, the company also agreed to translate its website into Spanish. 

“Providing necessary information and resources in an individual's native language is a massive step in the right direction regarding language justice and clean green technologies for Central Hudson,” said Susie Ximenez, Community Engagement Coordinator at Citizens for Local Power. “We have been pushing for Central Hudson to include Spanish Language materials, resources, bills, and notifications. Many of our community members are struggling financially and are at risk of termination; the proper information and resources will start to be shared with customers online, printed, and via culturally competent customer service representatives in their native languages without any excuses.”

“Thanks to the hard work of our partners at AGREE and Citizens for Local Power, as well as the support and involvement of many local elected officials, a settlement that adequately acknowledges the financial challenges facing Mid-Hudson Valley residents was reached,” said Richard Berkley, Executive Director of the Public Utility Law Project of New York (PULP). “The significant bill impacts initially proposed were mitigated and the company agreed to resolve consumer COVID-19 arrears if the State does not act to do so before winter. We also have a commitment to greater transparency and language accessibility in billing and consumer notifications, broader eligibility criteria for low-income/fixed-income households to enter the Low-Income Affordability program, and an embrace of the necessary changes created by the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.” 

The Joint Proposal does not directly address the more than $22,167,558 of debt that 27,831 Central Hudson customers find themselves mired in. Instead, the proposal asserts that the PSC should address the debt crisis within a more general ongoing case that applies to all utilities. However, in recognition that the PSC has thus far failed to alleviate the mounting debt crisis, the Joint Proposal sets out a process for the utility and public interest groups to develop an arrears management plan together if the PSC continues to ignore the issue. 

As part of the agreement, the Company will see a return on equity (ROE) of 9%, which is an increase over the 8.9% that they were allowed in 2018, during the most recent rate case. The Company had asked for 9.1%. In 2009, by comparison, during the previous economic crisis, Central Hudson’s Return on Equity was fixed at 6.82%. 

“It is unacceptable for the Commission to sit by while company shareholders earn even bigger returns and so many people can’t cover their basic needs,” said Citizens for Local Power’s Susan Gillespie. “In the absence of strong Commission action on the Covid economic crisis and clear directives about reducing shareholder profits, there is only so far that community and grassroots groups can get in negotiations with individual utilities. We need to see stronger action from the PSC to ensure that utility shareholders are not earning excess profits at the expense of the wellbeing of the communities they are there to serve. People need electricity and heat for their daily existence, their children’s education, and more, and the scale of utility debt is overwhelming right now.”

Contact:
Jessica Azulay, Alliance for a Green Economy, jessica@agreenewyork.org, 917-697-4472

Susan Gillespie, Citizens for Local Power, susan.h.gillespie@gmail.com, 914-388-3506

Richard Berkley, Public Utility Law Project, rberkley@utilityproject.org, 917-512-5334 

State Legislators and Climate Advocates Demand: NYS Public Service Commission Must Stop Utility Shut Offs, Cancel Utility Debt

On August 18th at 3pm, State Assemblymember Emily Gallagher, State Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani and State Senator Jabari Brisport stood with advocates from across the state at a press conference on utility debt relief. Advocates included the NY Energy Democracy Alliance, WE ACT for Environmental Justice, Alliance for Green Economy, Citizens for Local Power, Public Utility Law Project, Public Power NY, Sane Energy Project, Mothers Out Front NY, and Food & Water Watch outside of the Public Service Commission’s offices in New York City and Albany, calling on the Public Service Commission to act and ensure relief for struggling New Yorkers. They called on the Public Service Commission to end utility shutoffs, and to require utility shareholders who have continued to profit throughout the pandemic to cover all utility debt. Link to footage from the event can be found HERE.

As of June 2021, nearly 1.2 million households and 141,273 businesses in NY are 60 days or more behind on their energy bills. The energy debt of these customers is over $2 billion total, with indebted residential customers owing an average of $1,230.08 to the utilities. These households are now at risk of electricity, water, and gas shutoffs given that the moratorium on shutoffs expired on June 24th, 2021. This is unacceptable, particularly in light of the fact that both the utilities and the Public Service Commission (PSC) have had more than a full year to work on a plan to address the mounting energy debt crisis, and have yet to offer solutions that would not put the burden of debt back onto ratepayers.  

State Senator Jabari Brisport said: “Privately owned utility companies do not need one dime more in profits. Energy, water, and utilities are a human right and should not be privatized; rather, they should be run by the public and for the public good. We know that private utilities spend these profits on things that do not benefit the public, like the North Brooklyn Pipeline. This not only doesn’t benefit people, but actively harms communities through the threat of leaks, explosions, and further climate catastrophe. We don’t want new fossil fuel infrastructure. We are calling on the PSC to say that the debts need to be cancelled on the shareholders’ dime. Make the shareholders pay, and moving forward, we need to shift to a publicly-owned renewable energy system.”

State Assemblymember Emily Gallagher said: “"Basic utilities are a human right and a necessity to survive but too many of our neighbors are facing imminent shut-offs because our state continues to prioritize corporate profits over the public good. We must cancel all utility debt accrued during the pandemic and rapidly move toward public, democratic-control of our energy system." 

State Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani said: “Freedom means nothing without economic freedom. We don’t care about freedom solely as an intellectual concept or as a vehicle for patriotism - we care about how we experience it on a day to day basis. It is the freedom of New Yorkers that is at stake when we decide to put the cost of fossil fuel at the feet of average working class New Yorkers as opposed to shareholders. When we continue to prioritize a system for private ownership and extraction over public power. When we say again and again the CLCPA is simply rhetorical and does not apply to rate cases. I am so proud of the fact that we have the possibility of a new day with Governor Hochul coming into office, because Cuomo has been nothing but an obstacle to every climate fight we’ve had. End the shutoffs, cancel the debts, make the shareholders pay, ensure we have public power, and make the word freedom mean something for working class New Yorkers.”

Yuwa Vosper, Policy & Regulatory Manager for WE ACT for Environmental Justice, said: “It has been 18 months. This is more than enough time for The Public Service Commission to form a response to the COVID 19 debt crisis. Yet, meaningful action has failed to take place. We are here demanding debt relief for customers and people who desperately need this assistance. We need to remember that the city’s essential workers are disproportionately people of color. Essential workers who are employed in low-wage industry sectors experienced greater rates of housing instability, food insecurity and financial hardship, and are living below the federal poverty line or hovering near it. These are the same people we praised, held parades, and clapped out our windows for just months prior. We need the PSC to cancel the debt for these workers and for all New Yorkers.”

Avni Pravin, Deputy Policy Director for AGREE, put it thusly: “It is unacceptable that the Public Service Commission, charged with a responsibility to protect the public and vulnerable New Yorkers from monopolistic utilities, has not taken the urgent actions needed to resolve the utility debt crisis. In fact, the only actions taken have been to more comfortably line the pockets of our corporate utilities. As seen on Thursday of last week, the PSC approved a major and unaffordable rate hike, on top of already unaffordable rates, to pay for a fracked gas pipeline that will tear through black and brown communities, impact the health of already pollution burdened communities, and exacerbate our climate crisis. We are facing down the barrel of a gun loaded with evictions, crushing financial debt, potential deaths from utility shutoffs, and the climate crisis all while the corporate utilities consolidate their monopoly power. We need utility debt cancelled now.”

Brian Sempala-Kimuli, an Organizer with the Capitol District Democratic Socialists of America, said: “On August 12 the Public Service Commission showed their true allegiance yet again. Not only did the Commissioners fail to address the utility debt crisis—they made it even worse. They sided with National Grid and chose to raise rates for downstate customers, over 280,000 of whom are already struggling to afford their utility bills. What we need is public power! We need a democratically accountable and publicly owned energy system that prioritizes our climate, fair wage jobs, and communities historically impacted by fossil fuel development and burdened by utility debt. Public power isn’t a new or radical idea. It works at a local level for over 50 municipalities across the state. Just like the climate crisis, it’s right here, right now. We need utility debt forgiveness and we need public power for all of New York State!”

“After 18 months of Covid-19’s public health and economic crisis, more than one million households owe approximately $1.5 billion on energy utility bills, and unknown but likely equally unaffordable amounts on their water, telephone and internet bills,” said Richard Berkley, Executive Director of the Public Utility Law Project. “We cannot abandon New York’s vulnerable households to an inescapable pit of debt, which is why we are calling upon the PSC and OTDA to finally fix this crisis.”

New York State desperately needs relief from the COVID-19 induced economic recession. According to a report from the Empire Center: “As of February, private employment in New York State was still down 12.2% from a year earlier— more than double the national average decrease of 6%, and the second biggest decline of any state except Hawaii (-19.7%).” And as New Yorkers lost work, bills continued to mount, trapping increasing numbers of New Yorkers in an inescapable spiral of debt. 

During their August 12th PSC meeting, the Commissioners failed to address the utility debt or utility shutoff crises. They did add $129 million in additional benefits to their $237.6 million low-income energy bill discount programs, which would expand the reach of the program to an additional 95,000 customers. But that expansion is not nearly enough to cover the $2 billion in utility debt that is continuing to skyrocket. In addition, they approved a rate hike for downstate National Grid customers that would increase bills an average of $125/year beginning in mid-2022, forcing customers to pay millions for controversial new fossil fuel infrastructure like the North Brooklyn Pipeline and worsening the energy affordability crisis. They are also considering similar rate hikes in utility territories across New York.

Gianni Rodriguez, Environmental Justice & Climate Resiliency Organizer for Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES), said: “La pandemia ha dejado a muchas familias en una situación financiera incierta. Las comunidades mas afectadas han sido como la nuestra: en su mayoria gente de color, familias de bajos ingresos, con mucha gente perdiendo su trabajo durante la crisis. Estas son las mismas personas que están atrasadas en los pagos de servicios públicos porque han tenido que elegir entre las facturas que pueden pagar cada mes. Estamos aqui hoy para exigirle a la comision de servicio publicos que cancele todas las deudas de los servicios publicos, que ponga fin a todas las cancelaciones de los servicos, y que los inversionistas sean los que absorban la carga de pagar las deudas, no las familias que ya no aguantan mas.”

Tanisha Logan Lattimore, an Organizer with Mothers Out Front, said: “As a Mothers Out Front member, we advocate for a livable planet for our children and future generations. I believe I am obligated to fight for every human right such as water and utilities. The pandemic has devastated the incomes and lives of NYS residents and the world. We must be able to pick up the pieces and move forward. Ending utility debt will aid us in a more positive outlook on our human situation.”

Susie Ximenez, Community Engagement Coordinator for Citizens for Local Power, said: “The system we live in allows corporations to get bailouts, and lets their CEOs become millionaires and billionaires during pandemics while many of our community members struggled to cover the cost of our utility bills and everyday essentials. Shareholders can afford to cancel our debts!”

Anna Tsomo, an Organizer with Sane Energy Project, said: “The reason I got involved in this fight is because the North Brooklyn Pipeline was built one block away from my family's home. So I know what it feels like to have the face of the extractive fossil fuel economy come to your doorstep. Last week, the PSC voted to allow National Grid to extract more money from New Yorkers who are working hard to survive, in order to pay for the North Brooklyn Pipeline that communities have been opposing for over two years. National Grid's CEO John Pettigrew makes $3,600 a day. It doesn't make sense for him to be making money off of New Yorkers when we are struggling to pay bills. We will not pay for the North Brooklyn Pipeline. Utility debt should be cancelled. No more fossil fuel economy! We're investing in public power and renewables now!”

"The situation is a result of the growing inequality we are seeing, and it is unacceptable" said Susan H. Gillespie, President of the Board of Citizens for Local Power. "Shareholders already get guaranteed profits on their investments in our 'public' utilities. They need to share the burden of making sure everybody has electricity for their daily use, schooling, etc. etc."

“The financial crisis gripping New Yorkers struggling with utility debt is a public health crisis, too. The case is clear, as research has shown, stopping utility shutoffs, and water shutoffs in particular, during a public health crisis saves lives. Water is a human right under any circumstance, and the incoming Governor Hochul has a moral obligation to ensure that every New Yorker has access to safe affordable water,” said Eric Weltman, senior organizer with Food & Water Watch.

The New York Energy Democracy Alliance is an alliance of community organizations, policy experts, and grassroots advocates from across New York State.