Con Ed Blasted By Lawmakers Who Hint Entity Should Be Public

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK — City lawmakers demanded answers from Con Edison Wednesday about why tens of thousands of Brooklyn residents lost power during a massive July heatwave and why those residents were given no notice before being plunged into darkness.

City Council hosted a public hearing to quiz Con Ed about its handling of a blackout that left about 33,000 southern Brooklyn homes without power and debate whether the electric company should remain a privatized utility.

"If I were you I would be saying, ‘I am so effing sorry for what happened,’” Speaker Corey Johnson told Con Ed. “This is an embarrassment.”

"We do have to figure out whether or not Con Edison should be running this," added Public Advocate Jumaane Williams. "It's a miracle no one was harmed."

Three Con Ed representatives faced hours of questioning from Johnson, Resiliency and Waterfronts committee chair Justin Brannan and Consumer Affairs committee chair Rafael Espinal and Environmental Protection committee chair Costa Constantinides about the blackouts that began Sunday evening on July 21.

As temperatures spiked to 102 degree and New Yorkers rushed to turn up their air conditioners, feeders began to fail and blackouts began to occur across the five boroughs leaving 10,000 customers without power.

Con Ed, hoping to curtail a cascade that would wipe out the grid, responded by intentionally cutting power to 30,000 customers in Canarsie, Mill Basin and Flatbush and lowering power in Prospect Heights, Flatlands, Bergen Beach and Georgetown.

More than 6,000 customers in Brooklyn and Queens were still without power days later, and public officials who demanded answers said they were lied to by Con Ed about when residents would be able to use their refrigerators, medical equipment and A.C. units again.

Con Ed President for Brooklyn-Queens Electric Operations David Desanti defended the company's decision to intentionally shut down power, which he argued spared the city from a much larger blackout and costly repairs to infrastructure.

"Our decision to preemptively cut power was correct," said Desanti said. "Our action also prevented more longterm impact."

But Speaker Johnson questioned why a preemptive shut-off was necessary when, days before the heatwave, Con Edison President Tim Cawley told reporters the utility had spent $1.5 billion and "a full year preparing for the high demand that summer brings.”

"You need someone new to advise you on how to communicate with the public," Johnson said. "Because it is inadequate and laughable."

Council member Brannan raised concerns over how the utility would cope with climate change, noting the frequency of heat waves in New York City and days above 90 degrees are expected to triple by 2050.

And Councilman Mark Treyger wanted to know why his district, which covers Coney Island and Bensonhurst, suffered power outages "almost every other week" and why his constituency had been the last to know about power cuts even though they were among the most heavily affected by them.

"I found it appalling an unacceptable that the people most affected by this blackout where the last to know," said Treyger. "The era of these greedy monopolies ... has got to end."