Free Republic

A massive power outage has been reported in NYC, it's probably nothing, but given the location, I would not want to be in Manhattan tonight, it could get interesting if the power is out for a significant length of time...

Idiots who support bans on fracking and restrictions on new pipelines say it’s “unexpected” that New York has a shortage of natural gas One of the most simple and basic signs of intelligence is the understanding that actions lead to consequences.In New York, some people are showing a basic lack of understanding of this concept.In New York state, fracking is banned, and new pipelines have been prohibited in certain locations. The natural and logical outcome of these policies is that the state has a shortage of natural gas. Developers who had been planning to build new housing will not be allowed...

Con Edison crews working to restore power knocked out to customers in Brooklyn and Queens from the excessive heat are involved in contract talks and workers have authorized a strike for June 30 if an agreement is not reached. Harry Farrell, president of Local 1-2 of the Utility Workers Union of America, warned his members could be on picket lines if and when the next heat wave hits. …

Pay up or get out. Con Ed has given the Ground Zero mosque an ultimatum: Pay the $1.7 million you owe in back rent, or we’ll terminate your lease and take back our property. Con Ed and mosque developer Park51 have an unusual, uneasy alliance, sharing ownership of a site slated to be one of the most controversial projects in city history. The utility owns a former substation on the western half of the property, at 51 Park Place, and the mosque developers own a five-story building on the eastern half. The buildings were connected years ago and used to...

The mosque developers are tax deadbeats. Sharif El-Gamal, the leading organizer behind the mosque and community center near Ground Zero, owes $224,270.77 in back property tax on the site, city records show. El-Gamal's company, 45 Park Place Partners, failed to pay its half-yearly bills in January and July, according to the city Finance Department. The delinquency is a possible violation of El-Gamal's lease with Con Edison, which owns half of the proposed building site on Park Place. El-Gamal owns the other half but must pay taxes on the entire parcel.

Park51 developer Sharif El-Gamal, accidental protagonist of the most politicized real estate story in recent memory, sat behind the blond-wood desk in his office six floors above the lower Broadway mall, and, meaty hands clasped before him, held forth on what it takes to make it in real estate. After all, it is real estate—not fanning national anti-Muslim hysteria—that is Mr. El-Gamal's actual business. "You know, the real estate business is a very tough business, and you have to be patient and persistent, and aggressive, and thank God I have all those qualities," said Mr. El-Gamal, who looks something like...

Not so fast. The developers of the controversial mosque proposed near Ground Zero own only half the site where they want to construct the $100 million building, The Post has learned. One of the two buildings on Park Place is owned by Con Edison, even though Soho Properties told officials and the public that it owns the entire parcel. And any potential sale by Con Ed faces a review by the state Public Service Commission. “We never heard anything about Con Ed whatsoever,” said a stunned Julie Menin, the chairwoman of Community Board 1, which passed a May resolution supporting...

A shocking 22 percent of a typical city apartment dweller's Con Ed electric bill goes to a battery of city, state and federal taxes under a new state rate schedule that kicks in this month, a Post analysis found. People who burn 250 kilowatt hours of electricity per month -- what a 750-square-foot apartment might use when air conditioners are turned off -- will see their bills jump 4 percent starting this month, assuming electric generating costs stay constant. A big part of that jump is going to a 31 percent boost in Con Ed's property taxes, a 16 percent...

In advance of your next electricity bill, here is some good news and some bad news from New York regulators. Good news first: plummeting fossil fuel costs have pushed wholesale electricity prices down by almost 40 percent since January, to their lowest level since 2003. The bad news: Con Edison may soon charge significantly more to deliver that cheaper electricity. How this tug of war will play out on electricity bills remains to be seen. The New York Independent System Operator, which oversees the state’s power markets and distribution, announced this week [pdf] that the average cost of wholesale electricity...

A consortium of private investors that sought to build high-voltage electricity transmission lines to carry power from renewable sources upstate to New York City said on Friday that it was suspending its efforts. The consortium, New York Regional Interconnect, cited a ruling made on Tuesday by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in Washington upholding a review process that demands that each such project be subject to a cost-benefit analysis and receive the support of 80 percent of the beneficiaries. Regional Interconnect said it interpreted the decision as giving its main competitor, Con Edison, which purchases almost all of the electricity...

See for example this thread first. It's not the first time it's been said How many folks work for Con Ed? "About half of them," goes the little gem; the rest are on strike, or they're dead.

August 15, 2004 -- A 26-year-old skateboarder is scarred for life after she fell onto a red-hot Con Edison manhole cover — mere blocks from the scene of a tragic death earlier this year when a woman stepped onto an electrified Con Ed cover. Magazine receptionist and DJ Liz Wallenberg told The Post she was skating to see friends at an East Village club early Wednesday when she hit a bump in the road at 13th Street and Second Avenue. "I landed with my arm and back straight onto the metal cover," Wallenberg said. "I noticed it was kind of...