Dromm in Queens Chronicle: Double-Digit Increase Equals Angry Ratepayers

From Queens Chronicle:
Across the borough, Con Edison customers like Laura Cadorette are cutting back on electricity, buying energy efficient light bulbs and suffering through hot summer days without the air conditioner, all because of an expected 22 percent Con Ed rate increase over last summer’s rates. Only in Cadorette’s case, all that conserving didn’t translate into a lower, or even a modest increase in her electric bill. Like millions of New Yorkers, the Jackson Heights resident recently got a shocker in the mail — a $190.80 Con Ed bill for her 1,000-square-foot apartment, outfitted with $100 worth of new energy saving bulbs and with her 15,000 BTU air conditioner left silent, a relic of better times.

At a rally in Jackson Heights last week, Daniel Dromm and lawmakers joined area residents to rail against Con Ed, a utility with few friends among city ratepayers and co-op managers like Debbie DaGiau at section three of Southridge Co-op in Jackson Heights.