Sen. Charles Schumer is calling for an investigation into soaring electricity prices.
The New York Democrat says Wednesday that he’s urging the Federal Trade Commission to look at whether utility prices have been artificially inflated. Schumer says consumers have complained to his office about monthly bill increases of as much as 100 percent.
Schumer says he’s concerned electric bills seem to be rising faster than the price of natural gas used in many power plants.
National Grid spokesman Patrick Stella says the utility supports a review of the price increases, which it has blamed on high natural gas demand and a long, cold winter on the East Coast.
Stella says National Grid doesn’t mark-up wholesale electricity costs and that it is working to gradually phase-in the increases to assist customers.
(AP)
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One Response
Since utilities are state regulated – down to what sorts of generation capacity they have (such as some states that ban efficient and cheap generation of power for environmental reasons – meaning they shouldn’t also be compalining about paying more and have less reliable power than states that encourage building power plants) — the Federal government should not be involved.
As the Democrats are in favor of banning natural gas production in New York, they should expect rates to go up from gas that has to be imported.