New Yorkers were walloped with a 9.6 percent surge in their power bills last year, even though national electricity prices hardly budged, new government data show.
A typical monthly Con Ed bill for an apartment using 300 kilowatt hours of electricity was $77.50 in 2010, compared with $70.74 a year earlier, according to the data from the US Energy Information Administration.
The company charged 25.85 cents per kilowatt hour — more than twice the national average of 11.54 cents, the figures show.
Con Ed blames its high prices on the cost of maintaining its underground distribution system, labor costs and taxes — a hidden cost that takes up more than 20 percent of all bills.
Con Ed is expected to seek a rate boost next year that would kick in sometime in 2013.
(Source: NY Post)
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3 Responses
That ConED rates are so high is not news. It’s been that way for many many years.
The finger should be pointed at Shelly Silver who has allowed this to continue on his watch.
Many laud him for the good he has done for the klall, but forget that while he may be putting money in one of our pockets he has been taking out from the other side by such things as allowing the utilities in New York to charge such exorbitant rates and the MTA to get fare hikes without opening their books, etc.
Electricity is produced locally and can’t be easily (and cheaply) transferred over very long distances. The northeastern states are opposed to generating electricity locally (too messy, who wants to live near a generator), and have many rules that raise business costs. Allegedly these rules improve the quality of life, so they say, so enjoy the resulting prices.
@ichbin
Before complaining about Con-Ed’s rates take a look a their annual report (shoutout to PWC); they’re not exactly raking it in. As for the MTA it’s pretty well known that they run at a loss (I do agree, however, that they should open their books.)