Anti-fracking Infrastructure Organizations Disrupt the Public Service Commission Meeting for Approving Con Edison’s ‘Climate Disaster’ Rate Hike

Following the PSC meeting New Yorkers held a brief sit-in protest at the Hall of Governors to highlight Governor Cuomo’s complicity in the approval of fracked gas infrastructure and failure of climate leadership to get New York off gas in a time frame climate science and now State climate law demands.

“It is harrowing to see how the process failed New Yorkers today,” said Benjamin Schwartz, co-owner of White Pine Community Farm in Dutchess Co. just near CVEC. “The PSC did nothing but open the door for corporations to poison water, air, and land, that are pinnacle for the success of my farm that serves fresh food and medicine to fellow New Yorkers across the region. What we saw is a failure in our government today that will shoe in any polluter for the right price. The expansion of fracked gas in New York goes against everything New York claims to stand for.”

“Governor Cuomo’s administration is starting off 2020 by ignoring the CLCPA and supporting climate denialism,” said Lee Ziesche, Sane Energy Project Community Engagement Coordinator. “We have just ten years left to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and Con Ed’s plan spends the next three years and hundreds of millions of our rate payer  dollars going in the wrong direction. Cuomo and Mayor De Blasio cannot call themselves climate leaders and raise our bills for fracked gas pipelines at the same time.”

“New York City residents, who will see their bills skyrocket in the coming months, feel they never had a voice in this process,” Leah Vanessa Bachar, a NYC resident and Con Ed customer said, “How can this possibly happen with no public input? They say they held public hearings, but we never hear about them. Why didn’t they send us notifications in our monthly bills? They certainly have an easy way to contact us if they want our money, but they don’t contact us if they have something to hide, like a rate hike or more poisonous fossil fuels.” 

“Governor Cuomo claims to be a climate leader while betraying the public behind closed doors allowing Con Edison and other investor owned utilities to use ratepayer money to expand fracked gas infrastructure,” said Amber Ruther of the NYC Democratic Socialists of America. “Cuomo’s climate failure extends to his Public Service Commission whose first ruling after the passage of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act directly contradicts its climate goals. If we plan to address the climate crisis with the urgency the science demands, the age of investor owned utilities must come to an end.”

The PSC voted 4 to 1 to approve Con Ed’s plan. Tracey Edwards was the lone commissioner to vote against the rate hike saying the plan didn’t go far enough, or fast enough concerning renewable energy.