Posted on 07/27/2012 2:22:08 PM PDT by matt04
Attorney General Martha M. Coakley on Thursday proposed a $16.3 million fine against National Grid, saying the giant utility failed to communicate effectively, neglected to mobilize enough crews and was delinquent in responding to thousands of fallen wires during last year's October snow storm and Tropical Storm Irene.
...
Deborah Drew, a spokeswoman for National Grid in New England, issued a prepared statement, saying company officials "strongly disagree with the extreme conclusions of the attorney general. Drew said she would not comment beyond the statement.
She said the company will file its formal response on Wednesday with the state Department of Public Utilities, which will decide if any fine is imposed. She said the company will wait to see the department's findings and recommendations.
"While we acknowledge that our storm restoration efforts did not meet our customers' expectations, and there is room for improvement, we strongly disagree with the extreme conclusions the Attorney General has drawn," Drew said in the statement. "We will address those issues in our August 1 response to the DPU. We will continue to work to provide the level of service our customers expect and deserve."
...
The attorney general said restoration should have taken five days for the October storm, but it took nine days.
(Excerpt) Read more at masslive.com ...
</sarcasm>
Kookley at it again...
Sounds like a way to sneak in a $16.3 Million tax increase without raising “taxes”. Just let the company that was fined raise its rates.
Those power companies need to scuttle their hardware and go galt.
What experience does Martha Coakley have in power restoration, besides what the LAW says? I’m guessing none. I live in North Central CT and the damage after the October storm was almost identical to Western Ma.
I don’t know the statistics, but they had to replace thousand of poles and transformers, essentially rebuild miles of the grid from the ground up, including transmission lines in areas. In addition to that, thousands if not tens of thousands of instances of trees and braces on wires.
She also fails to realize that the storm caused over 3 million outages, from West Virginia to Maine. To get enough crews in, you can’t just go south, you have to go west of the Mississippi.
I live in CT. See my #7. Not only the Fed, but Malloy did absolutely nothing to help the utilities. All he did was demand they do this better, then flee the press confrence right after calling them up the podium.
So Joe and Jane Citizen, along with a lot of their friends, have there power out for several days. The state then sues to punish a company that, I am sure, wasn’t sitting on its hands during that outage.
Who will get the money, if coakley is successful? Not Joe and Jane. No, no! The state of Massachusetts, that’s who. You know, the real offended and aggrieved party.
And National Grid has $16 million less to use for a full recovery or to prepare for the next outage.
Makes perfect sense to me. Perfect. Yessiree, bob, perfect.
“The attorney general said restoration should have taken five days...”
YEAH. Because we all know that politicians (AG’s) are experts in electrical grid restoration on a large scale.
Attorney General Martha M. Coakley has a great start in dumbing down our nation's power grid, so it will become more like the power grids in third world countries. Keep it up, girl! Keep denying cost increases and increasing service demands on our power companies! Make them pay!
It is an excellent formula for failure because people do not want to work for nothing. You get what you pay for. What happened to basic economics?
For those who don’t recall Coakley history, here is a reminder of this most evil woman:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704281204575003341640657862.html
Memo yo: Attorney General Martha Coakley
My Take as a Retired Telephone Cable-Repairman(42 yrs) South Florida with a son, Repairman with Florida Power & Light (20+yrs)is this:
Kiss your family goodbye for a week or two. Travel, Sometimes hundreds of miles to a place you’ve never been and work a 16+ hour shifts, among dangerous hazards.
Thousands of people always crying and trying to buy their service to be the first back. Most people I met after the storms of South Florida were understanding. The ones that usually gained my/our respect understood and didn’t expect the unattainable!
By the way the best out of service people i ever met, were in Ft. Lauderdale and the neighborhood brought us coffee and sandwiches at 4AM one morning.
A guy from one of the FEMA offices on the east coast was in Texas on a TDY basis helping with inspections after Ike. After looking at my roof which was almost totally devoid of shingles he said I had to use hurricane proof shingles in the future or my wind insurance would not cover replacement. When I asked for his “expert” opinion on whether or not this would have helped my neighbor who didn’t even have a roof any more he just stormed off.
Coakley is an idiot, but just one of many. She just chose to remove any doubt about her lack of knowledge by telling the whole world.
Sure hope that you don't mind, but I felt that I had to put your comment in boldface type.
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