Harsh Criticism from Con Ed

WNYC News | Jul 12, 2010

New York, NY —

City Council members lashed out against Con Edison again yesterday, after the city's Economic Development Corporation released a 247-page report on last summer's Queens blackout.

The report is critical of Con Ed overall, but disputes an earlier finding by state regulators that Con Ed's decision to not shut down a failing network was the mistake that led to the greater outage. An official from the utility testified before the Council yesterday and said another blackout is unlikely this summer.

Con Ed says it's invested $1.4 billion to improve its grid and emergency response. It's also added 250 phone lines for customers calling to report outages. Though the Bloomberg administration has defended the utility, council members criticized everything from the timing of the new report's release to Con Edison's reliance on calls from customers to measure the extent of the blackout.

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