As many or all HUDseen readers may know, National Grid has two proposals in front of the NY State Public Service Commission to raise their rates for the electricity and natural gas they provide us. If you don't want your gas and electric bills to raise at least 20 percent without any improvements in services from National Grid, I suggest you fill out a comment form and submit it to the PSC. You have until June 30th to make your voice heard, and below I have provided links to the pages necessary to do so.
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Our ubiquitous yellow arrows and yellow gas valve caps are courtesy of National Grid. I have no idea why they paint so many of them. Yeah, it's yours. So what? |
With this article in mind a few days ago, I decided to be on the lookout for a National Grid (NG) vehicle to take a picture of while on my bike. One and a half blocks from my starting point, I came across a utility truck of theirs parked in Long Alley by the train tracks, across from Isaan Thai. The vehicle was idling with someone was inside. Doing what, I have no idea, nor did I want to know.
About thirty minutes later, with NG vehicles no longer on my radar, the noise of a big one got my attention at Warren & 3rd. I took a picture of it anyway. I then turned the corner onto Warren headed east and immediately came across a NG van parked in a metered space. Picture. As I looked up, readying to resume pedaling, headed my way was another monster NG truck roaring along. I took 3 pictures of NG vehicles, 2 going in different directions and one not moving, in less than 30 seconds at one intersection. And I wasn't even looking or waiting for them!
National Grid is a utility behemoth based in England that can't seem to control its costs. In my mind, the company has gotten too large and irresponsible, maybe trying to do too much. They're forced to hire a ridiculous number of contractors and subcontractors to get their work done and done safely. Work done by others. It can't even seem to repair its own damaged and sunken gas valves in our streets (some of them ancient-looking) unless someone calls them to point out what is so obviously in need of attention. (I call them quite a bit because it's no fun hitting a sunken anything on a bicycle!)
This past March, on their property behind Oakdale Lake that was a defacto public trail, they filled in a huge sinkhole for the second time in less than a year. Read about that here: More Stones That Won't Hold. The stones they filled the hole with in March (larger ones than before) are already starting to slide down the hill to the stream below. It's a mess to walk on, the erosion is (once again) happening quickly, and soon they will be forced to return with two or three loads of stones and 2 or 3 workers to fill the fucking hole again, knowing full well that it won't hold for very long (they basically told this to a friend of mine who was at the site last year while the hole was being filled. Talk about being fiscally and generally irresponsible, not to mention wasteful!). Remember, this is in the middle of the friggin' woods, 300 or 400 feet from a street! How many more times are they going to do this? How many more times are we going to pay them to fill a sinkhole that they don't seem to want to figure out what is causing it in the first place?
National Grid creates double utility poles all over our city, leaving the old poles for Verizon to remove, which Verizon rarely does if only because they are not required to and the city isn't telling them to (Rob Perry should be!). Finally, it needs to be repeated, they have too many trucks, and too many of them are too often in Hudson driving who knows where to do who knows what!
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This sunken GAS VALVE on Union at 3rd should have been fixed years ago! By NG! |
Tell the DPS how you feel about NG's proposed rate hikes, even if you just type the word NO! for each case. Or, how about "NO! NG No Good!" Even if you can afford the hikes, your neighbors probably can't.
This link should allow you to comment on both rate hike proposals: Info Page
You can read transcripts of statements made to the commission by New York residents during public meetings that were held last year for each case. To access those, try here: ELECTRIC, public statements and GAS, public statements. It's interesting to read how passionate, knowledgeable and critical so many people are of National Grid's proposed hikes, and rightly so. If you have the time before submitting your comments, I suggest you read some of the statements, if only to get a better idea of how the hikes will affect homeowners (and everyone else) and what National Grid has in store for the additional revenue they will be taking from our pockets. Reading the technical information on the DPS website about the hikes can be really, really head-spinning. Don't bother.
Tell your neighbors: TELL THE PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION TO DENY NATIONAL GRID ITS PROPOSED RATE HIKES! AND DO IT NOW!
I will leave you with something that is so odd that it only makes me suspicious of National Grid. Though they purchased Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation 25 years ago for $9 billion, National Grid still uses that name. This is what you will see written at the top of documents and pages on the Department of Public Service website (so don't be confused): Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation d/b/a National Grid. This is only true in New York State, one of the four states they can be found in. d/b/a? W/T/F! It's almost as if they're trying to hide their real identity, isn't it? Now what do you suppose they would do that for?
National Grid gets enough money from us as it is, and they deserve no more. Their utility rates are high enough as it is.
Oh, here's one last thought, I promise. Our DPW just took over the responsibility of every streetlight in town from National Grid. (How many hundreds of lights are there?) A NG employee will never again have to deal with replacing another light bulb in the City of Hudson. How much in labor and material and time and money is National Grid saving because of this change thanks to Hudson? Mucho dinero, amigo!
No mas!
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