Since the five-hour blackout that hit Manhattan on Saturday night, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has repeatedly attacked Con Ed, the utility that provides electricity and gas to customers in the New York area. He has threatened to strip the utility of its operating license and said the city was playing “Russian roulette” with electricity reliability.
That’s pretty rich. Over the past few years, Cuomo has repeatedly made political decisions that have reduced the reliability of New York’s energy infrastructure. Cuomo telling Con Ed that it needs to improve its reliability is like an arsonist telling the fire department to buy more pumper trucks.
The most obvious example of the reliability risks facing New York City is the looming closure of the Indian Point nuclear plant, a move that Cuomo began pushing for back in 2011.
Continue reading the entire piece here at Crain’s New York Business
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Robert Bryce is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and author of the new report, Out of Gas: New York’s Blocked Pipelines Will Hurt Northeast Consumers. Follow him on Twitter here.
This piece originally appeared in Crain's New York Business