Jul 22, 2007 3:10 pm US/Eastern
Queens Lawmaker Wants More Oversight Of Con Ed
NEW YORK (AP) ―
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Assemblyman Gianaris cited the steam pipe explosion by Grand Central as evidence that Con Edison needs more oversight.
AP
A Queens lawmaker called Sunday for greater oversight of Con Edison, saying last week's steam pipe explosion proves once again that the utility is unreliable and unaccountable.
Assemblyman Michael Gianaris, a Democrat whose Astoria district was hit by an eight-day blackout last summer, said Con Ed should be forced to compete for the right to manage the city's power infrastructure and should be subject to annual audits by the state Public Service Commission.
"What is the problem? The problem is, Con Edison has no accountability," Gianaris said. "They are an unaccountable monopoly in this city and we have to take steps to change that or else we are going to be dealing with this year after year after year."
A spokesman for Con Ed, Bob McGee, said only, "Our focus is on the restoration and repair of the equipment and finding out what the cause of Wednesday's incident."
The steam pipe rupture at East 41st Street and Lexington Avenue on Wednesday followed a string of problems with the aging steam system underneath the intersection, according to city records and officials with Con Edison.
The explosion killed one person and injured more than 40 others.
Gianaris said Con Ed should reimburse the dozens of businesses that have been affected by the blast for lost business -- something he said was not done for the merchants in his district who were affected by the 2006 blackout.
"They covered nothing for lost business opportunity in that eight, nine-day period, and it sounds to me like they're doing the same thing in midtown Manhattan, where they're covering clothes and cleanup and they're telling people to file their claims for lost business and their lawyers will review them on a case-by-case basis," he said.
Following last summer's blackout, which affected more than 100,000 people, Gianaris headed an Assembly task force that introduced legislation to force Con Ed to compete, to mandate independent audits of the utility and to increase reimbursements to merchants affected by outages.
"They have no reason to improve because there's not a damn thing we can do about it when they screw up," Gianaris said at a news conference in front of Con Ed headquarters near Union Square.
"We can no longer sit by and coddle this company and pat them on the back every time disaster strikes."
(© 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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