Elected officials are joining energy-focused advocacy groups in encouraging regulators to oppose a proposed NYSEG rate increase.
NYSEG’s proposal would increase electric rates by more than 22%, spread out over a three-year period.
Residential customers could be paying almost $30 more a month for electricity.
NYSEG is trying to justify the increases suggesting the company is using the money to expand utility infrastructure.
“The proposal reflects more than a year’s effort of the Companies and signatories to balance the competing interests of affordability and the obligation to provide safe and reliable service for customers,” a NYSEG spokesperson wrote in a statement.
State Senator Lea Webb, a Democrat who represents the Binghamton, Ithaca and Cortland areas, is one of a number of lawmakers and advocacy groups encouraging the New York Public Service Commission to reject NYSEG’s proposal.
"With any infrastructure upgrade, you do have to have monetary resources to make it happen and we're saying we recognize that, but it should not be on the backs of ratepayers,” Webb said at a press conference last week.
Rate cases like NYSEG’s go through a lengthy administrative process with the Public Service Commission.
The Public Service Commission will hold hearings and take public comments for the next three months. A final decision could be made by this fall.
