CITIZEN POWER ALLIANCE

This story gets more absurd by the day.

An article in the Syracuse Post Standard last week assailed National Grid for applying to the PSC for a 20% rate increase to "cover operating costs". When question about the necessity of yet another electricity rate hike on top of New York's already prohibitive rates (only Connecticut and Hawaii are higher), a National Grid spokesperson said the increase was necessary because consumers were conserving so much electricity that sales were not high enough to cover their operational costs.

Now in the Times article we see that a proposal will be put forth to connect Galloo into the National Grid substation on Rte 12E north of Salmon Run Mall, and that they (National Grid) would continue to own the substation after upgrades are made to handle the Galloo input.

Think about this for a minute; one of the states largest utilities cannot sell enough electricity to cover operating costs so they want a price increase of 20%; as the price goes up, consumers conserve more and all the while the output of wind farms adds to the available supply on the power grid. Less consumption, more supply, higher costs to cover expenses???

When will common sense prevail and greed and poor business management be recognized for what they are?? A continuing rep-off of New York's utility consumers!!

On a separate but connected note it is reassuring to see that Governor Paterson is looking out for the welfare of his constituents (the citizens of New York State) by trying to balance the states budget. How can we thank him enough for cutting aid to hospitals, schools, tuition aid programs, library's and countless other (non-essential??) public programs, while he continues to hand over hundreds of millions of dollars to off-shore wind-farm investor groups. How silly and ungrateful of us not to understand and appreciate the public-good in all of this! Why don't we understand the value in closing the nursing facility at River Hospital in Alex. Bay; of course pre-K children don't need to go to school; why can't every college student pay ever increasing tuition from decreasing student loan funds?

Again I say, when will common sense prevail..........

Charles Wilson
Three Mile Bay