MID-HUDSON – Both Congressman Patrick Ryan (D, NY-18, 19) and Congressman-elect Marcus Molinaro (R, NY-19) are pleased with the state Public Service Commission’s report finding Central Hudson Gas and Electric Corporation messed up royally with the rollout of its $88 million new billing system.
As a result, customers received electric bills that were totally off the charts with little to no explanation or correction by the utility company.
Ryan, the former Ulster County executive, did not mince words about the debacle.
“The residents of the Hudson Valley have been getting screwed over and ripped off due to gross incompetence and systemic failures by Central Hudson for over a year and (now) the Public Service Commission of New York State, in writing issued a formal report, validated what we knew, which is that Central Hudson screwed up. They need to be accountable, and they need to make whole the residents of the Hudson Valley,” he told Mid-Hudson News.
While Molinaro also sharply criticized Central Hudson, but said the issue goes beyond that.
“The State of New York needs to do better as well. The PSC shouldn’t be reactionary, it should be proactive. There needs to be a clear expectation from the regulatory institutions, the state, to the industry, that you need to meet the expectations of law and the expectations of your customers. And I shouldn’t have had to, as others did, call for an investigation. This shouldn’t happen,” he said.
For about a year since the billing issue surfaced, public officials on all levels of government called on the PSC to investigate what happened.
