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PULP E-Mail News
The Public Utility Law Project
Electronic Newsletter
September 4, 2009
N.Y. Times Perpetuates Myth Supporting Unjust Submetering Regime
A myth fostered by property owners and electric submetering proponents is that because New York tenants in rent stabilized apartments will receive an offsetting reduction in rent (due to the shift to tenants of bills for electric service previously included in rent), only tenants who are wasteful in their energy use will pay more when they get the owner's bills for electric service. This myth was reinforced in a New York Times real estate blog column on August 28th. Actually, most tenants who do not use a lot of electricity are likely to pay significantly more to their landlords after submetering because the Division of Housing and Community Renewal (“DHCR”) rent reductions do not come close to offsetting the landlord's new charges for electric service. This misconception diverts attention from the state agencies - the New York State Public Service Commission (“PSC”) and DHCR) - and the state authority, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (“NYSERDA”), that adopted measures in the Pataki years to make submetering a windfall trifecta for owners, with the PSC allowing landlords to provide de facto deregulated monopoly electric service, DHCR providing small rent reductions when separate charges are made for electricity, and NYSERDA providing grants to landlords to pay for the conversion to submetering, often with money that was targeted to benefit low income users of electricity. As a consequence, landlords continue to sell electricity without fundamental consumer protections in place, and low income tenants are facing hardship and displacement. MORE -- http://pulpnetwork.blogspot.com/2009/08/ny-times-perpetuates-submetering-myth.html
Town House West Tenants Association Files Supplemental Complaint Against Stellar Management's New, Unfiled Conditions of Submetered Electric Service
Town House West Tenants Association filed a Petition with the New York State Public Service Commission (“PSC”) on July 15th seeking to halt submetering. The PSC Secretary deemed it to be an untimely rehearing petition and referred the matter to the agency's Office of Consumer Services (“OCS”) to be handled as a complaint. The Tenants Association has since filed a motion to review the Secretary's referral of the case to OCS, pointing out facts that had arisen that justified a stay of submetering, which has not yet been decided. The landlord, represented by Harris Beach, did not serve an answer to the July 15th petition. Meanwhile, the landlord had started to charge tenants for submetered electric service. Recently, tenants were notified that the electric service bills they had received would now be regarded as mere "shadow" bills - informational only - and that they need not be paid. Also, the landlord recently demanded that tenants sign new lease riders for electric service and unilaterally announced new customer complaint procedures which had not previously been filed with and approved by the PSC. On September 2nd, PULP filed a Supplemental Complaint on behalf of the Tenants' Association with OCS pointing out continued serious deficiencies in the terms and conditions of submetered electric service.
MORE -- http://pulpnetwork.blogspot.com/2009/09/town-house-west-tenants-association.html
PSC Once Again Tells FCC to Let Market Take Lead on Broadband While the Market Continues to Fail Customers
In comments submitted to the FCC on Monday, the New York State Public Service Commission (“PSC”), along with the state’s Chief Information Officer/Office for Technology (“CIO/OFT”), told the FCC that it should let the market decide broadband availability issues. This position should come as no surprise since the agencies took an even firmer stance against governmental intervention in comments submitted to the FCC in June regarding broadband deployment. While the agencies did submit that the New York State Universal Strategic Broadband Roadmap, which was released in May 2009 by the state’s Council for Universal Broadband, calls for a minimum statewide speed of 1 Mbps, they acknowledged that this speed is not available in all areas today. Despite the failure of the market to bring this non-remarkable speed to rural as well as urban areas around the state, they continued to maintain that no governmental intervention should be necessary at this time. What New York State needs is real commitment to universal high speed broadband, and enforceable protections for broadband consumers - modeled on the state’s Telephone Fair Practices Act - as well as a mechanism to help low income families access broadband. We will not get there if the PSC and the CIO/OFT continue to push against governmental action, a hands-off policy that has caused the U.S. to decline to 15th in the world in broadband use, well behind other countries that have a real universal broadband policy and program.
MORE -- http://pulpnetwork.blogspot.com/2009/09/psc-once-again-tells-fcc-to-let-market.html
NYPA Holding Hearings on Reduced Hydropower Allocation for Residential Customers
In a terse revised Notice, the New York Power Authority ("NYPA") announced hearings being held September 1st in Lewiston at the Niagara Power Project and September 2nd in Syracuse regarding proposed extension of contracts for the sale of inexpensive hydropower produced at its Niagara Project for the benefit of residential customers of the major upstate investor-owned electric utilities. The Notice says the proposed contract extensions are for a total of 455 MW of firm and 360 MW of firm peaking hydropower currently being sold to the Utilities for the benefit of domestic and rural consumers. When one follows links in the Notice to the existing and proposed contracts with Niagara Mohawk d/b/a National Grid, New York State Electric and Gas, and Rochester Gas and Electric, we learn that the Authority reduced the allocation of hydropower to residential customers. Thus, the real deal is that under the old contracts, firm power from the Niagara project sold to these utilities for the benefit of domestic and rural consumers was 533 MW, and has been reduced to 455 MW, a net reduction of 78 MW, or 14.6%. This reduction occurred when the contracts were previously extended, and the new one-year extension would continue the reduction. Since federal law requires the majority of the hydropower produced be for residential use, it is not clear from the Notice how continuing the reduction of hydropower away from residential customers will affect compliance with the requirements of the statute. All proposed NYPA hydro contracts must be approved by the Governor before they can be finalized.
MORE -- http://pulpnetwork.blogspot.com/2009/09/nypa-holding-hearings-today-and.html
Last Year's Spiking Natural Gas and Electric Prices
Last year, natural gas prices spiked to unprecedented levels. Some have argued that the price spikes were due to speculation in the insufficiently regulated commodities markets. According to Paul Cicio, President of the Industrial Energy Consumers of America, in his recent testimony to Congress, [e]xcessive speculation in the natural gas market is real. From January to August of 2008 the price of natural gas more than doubled because of excessive speculation, not supply and demand fundamentals. In states like New York where the state Public Service Commission embraced electric industry deregulation, allowing all sellers to get the same price, this meant that sky-high prices demanded for the output of natural gas-fired power plants were paid to other producers whose costs are much lower. That is still the case this summer, but the gap between the low cost hydro and non-fossil fueled power plants and the higher priced power from natural gas-fired plants has narrowed.
MORE -- http://pulpnetwork.blogspot.com/2009/08/last-years-spiking-natural-gas-and.html
FCC Considering New Consumer Information Rules
On August 27th, the FCC released a Notice of Inquiry (“NOI”) to examine and evaluate the communication customers receive about their telephone service. Specifically, the FCC wants to know if consumers are being empowered and protected with the level of information they currently receive when it comes to choosing a service provider, selecting a service plan, managing use of that plan, and deciding whether (and when) to switch providers. In seeking more information on these topics, the FCC expressed particular interest in understanding cost-effective best practices in information disclosure from within the communications sector. Input is sought about the existing tools to reach customers, new technological means of communication, and which types of providers could be affected by communication requirements for the first time, including Voice over Internet Protocol (“VoIP”) and broadband Internet access service providers.
MORE -- http://pulpnetwork.blogspot.com/2009/08/fcc-considering-new-consumer.html
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THE PUBLIC UTILITY LAW PROJECT OF NEW YORK, INC., IS A NOT-FOR-PROFIT ORGANIZATION WHICH HAS REPRESENTED THE INTERESTS OF LOW INCOME UTILITY CONSUMERS SINCE 1981, ADVANCING UNIVERSAL SERVICE, AFFORDABILITY, AND CUSTOMER PROTECTION.
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