Earlier this year, a Queens home in the Floral Park section exploded, killing wife and mother of three Ghanwatti Boodram. Now the Daily News reports, "Con Edison workers stumbled and bumbled for more than an hour instead of evacuating a Queens house before it blew up in April, a new state report says."
Even though there's a stall in the Superfund debate, the EPA is moving forward with their work surrounding the Gowanus Canal. The Daily News now reports that they're pointing fingers at four more alleged polluters, all of whom could eventually have to help pay for the cleanup of the Canal. And they are (drumroll please): the U.S. Navy, Con Edison, chemical maker Chemtura, and... the city of New York!
After pushing through an electricity rate hike earlier this year, now Con Ed is setting its sights on gas customers. The Post reports the utility "is seeking to raise the price of gas for residents by 6 percent a year for three years, saying skyrocketing costs have left the utility in the hole, according to recently filed documents In the filings with the state Public Service Commission, Con Ed says it must make up for a shortfall of more than $160 million and is seeking permission from the board to raise residential gas prices 6 percent annually beginning in October 2010." FWIW, Con Ed reported that its 3Q profits rose 85% earlier this month.
These maps are sort of terrifying, no? The Jodie S. Lane Public Safety Foundation, named for the woman who was electrocuted to death in the East Village five years ago, has created a website that tracks and logs all incidents of stray voltage found by Con ED since January 2004. CityRoom reports that "It maps the location of more than 31,900 objects, like fences, manholes and sidewalks, that have been electrified by stray voltage and 930 shocks of people or pets that have been recorded during that period."
It's summertime in the city, whether or not the weather's caught up yet, and it's likely you are currently sitting in a freezing cold air-conditioned office. Yesterday NY1's Pat Kiernan Twittered about a USA Today graphic that claimed "2/3 of Americans say air conditioning a 'necessity'," which actually seems slightly low.
On Thursday, the Staten Island Advance reported that a 7-month-old tabby cat had been in the tree for four days. Luckily, on day five of her arboreal getaway, Dottie the kitten was rescued, thanks to some patience and the efforts of some nice folks.
Last month, the Public Service Commission approved a 2010 Con Ed rate hike that would result in about a $6/month increase in a residential customer's bill. Now, the utility is asking for rate hikes in 2011 and 2012 because Con Ed doesn't think the first hike will do enough, given its rising costs. One plan calls for a hike of about $6.48/month for residential customers while another proposes a $8/month hike. This isn't sitting well with Assemblyman Michael Gianaris (D-Queens), who says, "Just last month Con Ed was handed over $700 million in rate hikes, and already it has its hand out again. Con Ed fiddles while homes explode and blackouts and electrocutions become routine. This unaccountable monopoly does not deserve one cent in additional rate hikes until it reforms its practices and changes the way it does business."
The family of the woman who was killed when their house in Floral Park Queens exploded, apparently from a gas leak, visited the site of their leveled house. Dindial Boodram, whose wife Ghanwatti died, told the Daily News, "I want answers, I need answers" about how Con Ed handled reports for a leak—utility workers had been on the scene for 90 minutes and never evacuated residents in spite of high gas levels from a street manhole.
Firefighters found a woman's body under the rubble of a Floral Park house on 260th Street that exploded yesterday afternoon. The Daily News reports the body was discovered four hours after the 4:50 p.m. explosion: "Her husband was at work and her three kids were in an after-school program." The woman's husband, Dindail Boobram, told the NY Times that his wife didn't show up to pick up the kids.
As the legend goes, the feral parrots often seen in Brooklyn and Queens came here from South America, breaking free into the boroughs from some crates at JFK airport some 20 years ago. While they may make for nice photos, the parrots are causing some chaos in Queens. Earlier this week more than 1,500 Con Ed customers in Beechhurst lost power because of the feathered friends nesting in electrical equipment, the NY Post reported. Their nests have reportedly damaged one piece of Con Ed equipment repeatedly, each time costing around $20K to fix.
The State Public Service Commission approved a one-year increase for Con Ed electricity rates that will translate to a $6/month increase for NYC customers and $8/month for Westchester customers—plus another surcharge for other assessments, which give Con Ed about $721 million. Half that amount is for higher property taxes. The NY Times reports that the commission asked the utility to take "cost-cutting measures" but Assemblyman Michael Gianaris (D-Queens) blasted the decision, "As long as the Public Service Commission aids and abets Con Edison's game of perpetual rate hikes, the people of New York will continue to suffer from sky-high rates and substandard service. " And Con Ed, which had asked for $819 million, wasn't happy either, “Since most of a customer’s bill is used to pay supply costs and government taxes, it is troubling that the only costs being slashed in today’s P.S.C. decision are the funds used to maintain the system and provide reliable service." Update: Per a commenter, the Post suggests electricity rates will be this summer. We'll investigate.
The early Wednesday morning fire on Lafayette Avenue in Brooklyn's Bed-Stuy neighborhood is being investigated by the fire department. According to NY1, "Fire marshals are focusing on the possibility that there were three separate fires sparked by electrical problems." (Yesterday, it was suspected that a manhole fire was the cause.) Apparently Con Ed was in the area, to check out a reportedly smoking service box, "But the utility says the service box is not connected to the buildings were the fire broke out." One resident said, "There was a Con Edison truck across the street and then you just heard this big boom and then the lights dimmed in the house, the TV went off, and then, when I went to the kitchen window to look out, you just saw this bright light." The Red Cross is sheltering the eight families whose homes were evacuated; some of the residents were alerted by a neighbor's barking pit bull.
Residents of the 1,003-unit Roosevelt Landings complex on Roosevelt Island are used to paying for their electricity as part of their rents, but come April they'll start receiving separate bills for the first time. Last week the managers of the complex handed out sample electricity bills based on the readings of submeters installed in apartments, and now residents are shocked to learn that electricity is freaking expensive. One tenant who lives in a three-bedroom unit got a bill for $1,050.43, which was about half of what she pays in rent. Another tenant, Missy Feliciano, tells the Times, "I almost died when I opened the package." Assemblyman Micah Kellner wants officials to re-examine the submetering plan; he contends that "this is a de facto rent increase on this building," which used to be part of the state’s moderate-income Mitchell-Lama housing program. But the COO of the complex, Douglas F. Eisenberg, says, "They haven’t been responsible for their electric bills. Now they are. I think at the end of the day, I feel pretty good that we’re doing the right thing here."
Yet another story about people being scammed by thieves claiming to be utilities workers—this time, they're posing as Con Ed employees in Brooklyn. According to WCBS 2, some men and women are trying to gain entry into residents' homes by flashing fake IDs and asking things like "We just want to know if you're interested in lowering your fill for Con Ed and National Grid?" One woman said, "They wanted a copy of our gas bill to see if we qualified for a discount. She tried to talk me into going onto my computer and go online to give her our info and everything." A Con Ed spokesman Michael Clendenin said that people should definitely ask to see an ID if someone claims to be from the utility; he also clarified, "If they're coming at night, we don't come at night. We don't make house calls. We don't come to read your meter unless we've made an appointment." Recently, the city warned about people claiming to be from the DEP were scamming seniors.
Federal prosecutors say that eleven Con Edison supervisors (ten current and one retired) forced a contractor to give them over a $1 million in bribes so they'd approve payments on projects like clean-up from the 2007 steam pipe explosion near Grand Central Station. And what's more, the feds have wiretaps of them bragging about it. Classy!
A little-noticed fee on Con Ed bills goes to finance energy efficiency projects throughout New York State, but a Times analysis of how the money gets distributed found that a disproportionate amount of NYC dollars gets out of town. The so-called SBC [System Benefits Charge] typically amounts to about a dollar a month for the average NYC Con Ed customer. According to the Times, local Con Ed customers paid half of the state's total SBC charges over the past decade, while about 59% percent of the rebates, loans and other benefits handed out by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority went to fund projects outside of the metropolitan area.
Yesterday, hundreds gathered at a church in Whitestone, Queens to say good-bye to George Dillman, the 26-year-old Con Ed worker who was killed on the job last week. Dillman had been splicing cables in a manhole in Brooklyn and was trapped when an explosion occurred. Newsday reports that Dillman was "dressed in denim bearing the utility logo" that he "proudly wore." His fiancee (who he planned to marry next year), sisters, and the Hicksville fire chief (Dillman was a volunteer) all gave eulogies in the packed church where he was baptized, had his first communion, and was confirmed. A former teacher said, "He always worked, he always tried."
Yesterday, a routine Con Ed visit to a manhole at Euclid and Sutter Avenues in Brooklyn turned deadly when an explosion occurred with one worker trapped inside. George Dillman, 26, was killed as he was splicing cables.
Around 12:30 p.m., a manhole in East New York exploded with a Con Ed worker inside. The incident occurred at Euclid and Sutter Avenues, and there was heavy smoke at the scene.
The Con Edison training and conference facility in Long Island City, Queens has joined a small but growing family of buildings with green roofs, which absorb heat, reduce the need for air conditioning, and help improve air quality. According to the Sun, Con Edison projects that the green roof will save the building up to 30% in energy costs. There are now 21,000 plants atop the three-story facility, including 15 varieties of sedum, a shrub like plant typically found in desert climates which can absorb rainwater and is resistant to pests.
Hey Queens residents, about that blackout two years ago that left thousands of you without electricity or hot water for nine sweltering days? Con Ed is sorry! Also, here's one hundred dollars off your next Con Ed bill. Happy? Don't do anything rash like switch to a different electric company, okay? (Hahaha!) City Room reports that Con Ed is finally sending out letters of apology for the disruption, which the company agreed to do as part of a controversial mea culpa, which is Latin for "a slap in the face." The blackout was caused by a serious failure in the electricity delivery system in the Long Island City network; afterward CEO Kevin Burke bought an advertisement in the Times that fell far short of today's historic apology, which will surely smooth things over once and for all.
Last October, a faulty gas line caused an explosion in a Harlem apartment building. The explosion killed a woman and severely burned her four daughters, who have been in hospital burn units. Yesterday, six-year-ld Duaa Al Ghaithi was the last of the girls to return home, after many months of rehab (she will need many more years of therapy). According to NY1, she "wears a head-to-toe compression garment 23 hours a day" which also includes gloves. Duaa's vocal chords were also damaged, but she said, "I'm a female spiderman." Her family has sued the building's owner and Con Ed; apparently there had been complaints about the smell of gas, but the smell was later masked by fresh paint.
Con Edison has agreed to pay $24 million in damages caused by the steam pipe explosion near Grand Central Station last year. Con Ed will not pass along any of those costs to customers and in addition agreed to return to customers anything beyond $24 million that it wins in pending legal settlements related to the explosion. City Councilman Eric Giola spoke out in favor of the settlement saying Con Ed's “mistakes and bad management don’t just cost New Yorkers money, they also cost lives.”
Fire marshals are trying to understand what caused the Friday afternoon gas explosion at an apartment building in Flushing.
Yesterday afternoon, an apparently gas explosion caused a fireball and shook a Flushing apartment building. The fire injured 17 people, including a 2-year-old and her father were were critically injured. A resident told the NY Times, “I saw the man, who was burnt from head to toe. His clothes were burnt and he was screaming, and he said, ‘Save my baby!’”
By last night, power was restored to most customers in Sunset Park, Bay Ridge, Borough Park and Park Slope who were hit by outages. All residents in those neighborhoods were asked to conserve energy by not using air-conditioners and other power-sucking appliances as "4 of the 12 big feeders...malfunctioned," due to "overheating or overloading." Con Ed worked throughout yesterday to return power to all but a few residential and commercial customers were still without power overnight. While Brooklyn residents can go back to using their AC, etc., here are tips on conserving energy (and saving money!).
Con Ed is asking residents in some parts of Brooklyn to stop using "non-essential appliances" (including air-conditioning) because of power line issues. The issues have left around 2,000 customers--and keep in mind a customer can be an entire apartment building--without power in Sunset Park, Bay Ridge, Borough Park, and Park Slope.
A year ago today, a 24" steam pipe installed in 1924 broke and caused a massive explosion on Lexington Avenue and East 41st Street. Right after the blast, the Mayor called it a "failure of infrastructure."
Earlier this year, it was announced Con Ed would give refunds of $100 to residents and $350 to businesses who were struck by the 2006 blackout in Queens and now the state Public Service Commission has
Those high natural gas and oil prices have raised the prices for wholesale electricity that Con Ed buys from power-generating companies, and naturally the company is passing those expenses along to us. The company says that residential customers will pay 22% more for electricity this year than they did last summer – almost a quarter of that spike is due to a Bloomberg-approved rate hike.
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