Results tagged “assemblymanmichaelgianaris”

With the coup-coup State Senate still gridlocked, Assemblyman Michael Gianaris (D-Queens) and good government group the Citizens Union offer this idea: Governor Paterson can and should appoint a lieutenant governor who can break the tie! Gianaris said, “The answer to the state's gridlock was right under own noses the entire time: the law allows Governor Paterson to choose a Lieutenant Governor when there is a vacancy. I urge the Governor to make this appointment as quickly as possible so the state legislature can resume its work and pass the dozens of important measures that await action."

Hazardous currents found on 134,000 upstate light poles: 947Con Ed defended itself by saying that upstate light poles are made out of wood and that it does inspect its lights a lot for stray voltage. Still, Assemblyman Michael Gianaris tells the Post, "There's always an excuse other than 'we did something wrong.' They are the land of a thousand excuses - anything from a stray bolt of lightning to 'our poles are not made of wood' to whatever."

Continue reading "NYC Street Light Poles Are HOT"

Everyone is a little more aware of the city's steam system - and those steam vents on certain streets - after last week's Midtown steam pipe explosion. The NY Times reports that Con Ed "routinely checks manholes for vapor after rainstorms and pumps out water that reaches the height of the pipes." Hmm, maybe that's why the first lawsuit against Con Ed has been filed. The Post reports a 52-year-old Bay Ridge woman, Francine Dorf, says that she thought the explosion was a terrorist attack (her sister was killed on September 11) and said that the event triggered her post-traumatic street disorder: "I can't sleep, I can't eat."

Con Ed is laying the blame on Mame Mother Nature for the two power outages this past week. The utility issued a statement saying that the 48-minute blackout on Wednesday - the one that hit the Upper East Side and South Bronx - was caused by a "strong lightning strike." This is what the Con Ed statement said:

Information obtained from real-time lightning tracking data show that detection instruments measured a lightning strike of 34,000 amperes in the vicinity of a substation in Queens at 3:42 p.m. on Wednesday, precisely at the time of the power loss. The lightning strike momentarily affected communication equipment that prompted circuit breakers on multiple transmission feeders to open, causing the service interruption.

As for a Thursday power failure that affected Queens residents and business owners for two hours, Con Ed also blamed lightning. But that still makes politicians, especially ones from Queens who remember the lingering Queens blackout of last summer, nervous. Assemblyman Michael Gianaris said, "[Con Ed's] word over the last year has proven not to be worth very much. Their history is to obfuscate."

It's time for to break out the "Con Ed Sucks" signs! The utility has requested to raise electricity rates 17%; the Post reports, "typical residential cusomer paying $70 a month would pay an extra $12 per month starting April 1, 2008." (The increase for businesses is slightly smaller, 10.7%.) Well, we guess those livery cab drivers have to be paid somehow! And fixing the Long Island City network, which Con Ed should have been doing all along. Here's what Con Ed head Kevin Burke said in the press release:

“Electricity use has increased more than 20 percent over the past 10 years, and we are responding with a two-fold approach. The energy efficiency measures we propose will help slow the rising demand for power. At the same time, we need to increase our investments if we are to maintain a reliable, resilient, and robust infrastructure necessary to meet the needs of a growing population and an increasing demand for electricity."

But Assemblyman Michael Gianaris tells the Empire Zone, "At a time when they’ve now proven they can’t spend their money in the right places, I don’t see how this increase can be justified. It’s a very profitable company that has proven to have serious failures in its reliability. To request what can only be a massive increase in rates to the customers who are already paying among the highest rates in the nation is unfathomable.”

Queens Assemblyman Michael Gianaris accused Con Ed of placing its own PR needs above basic needs of customers. Gianaris says that the utility spent over a half million dollars to shore up its image after last summer's Queens blackout. He argues that money should have gone towards increasing reimbursements to businesses, whose reimbursements were capped at $7,000.

Politicians believe more names need to be mentioned at the World Trade Center Memorial Museum. Assemblyman Michael Gianaris of Queens and State Senator Marty Golden of Brooklyn will be introducing a bill that would ask that the names of deceased Ground Zero workers be included.

Power is still out in Western Queens. As we noted yesterday ConEd has now admitted that they vastly underestimated the number of people who have been without power for the past five days. While they initially said that there were 2,500 folks in the dark the number looks now to be at least ten times that number. And that's not even touching the estimated 100,000 people who are still living off of reduced voltage (enough for flickering lights, not enough to keep food cold let alone use AC or elevators).