CONGRESSMAN PAT RYAN'S STATEMENT ON CENTRAL HUDSON'S RATE INCREASE
Congressman Pat Ryan's Statement on Central Hudson’s Rate Increase
KINGSTON, NY – Congressman Pat Ryan released the following statement on Central Hudson’s rate increase:
“From day one, I’ve been fighting to lower costs and hold Central Hudson accountable. With Hudson Valley families feeling the economic pressure, allowing any rate increase is completely unacceptable,” said Congressman Pat Ryan. “We’re all still reeling from years of systemic failure by Central Hudson – while their profits continue to grow at our expense. We can’t back down.”
In March of 2022, while serving as Ulster County Executive, Ryan demanded that the PSC launch an investigation into Central Hudson’s failed billing practices.
On August 18, 2023, the PSC required that Central Hudson pay for the installment of an independent monitor to review the company’s erroneous billing practices and oversee the correction of its billing systems. Despite Central Hudson customers continuing to experience billing issues, Central Hudson requested a rate increase of 16% for electricity and 19% for gas. In January, the PSC announced that it chose litigation instead of negotiation in its rate case with Central Hudson.
Congressman Ryan has made repeated calls for Central Hudson’s rate increase request to be rejected until its billing systems are fully fixed and every customer that was wronged is made whole. Last October, Congressman Ryan demanded that the rate increase request be rejected and applauded the Public Utility Law Project of New York (PULP)’s filing of a motion to deny Central Hudson’s request for a utility rate increase. In January, Congressman Ryan organized his own hearing with local elected officials and Central Hudson customers to demand the rate increase be rejected. In March, when the independent monitor’s report on Central Hudson’s billing practices was weeks overdue, Congressman Ryan led local officials in calling on the PSC to uphold its transparency pledge and release the report immediately, noting that the information contained in the report is critical for the pending rate increase case. In May following a judge’s recommendation of a partial rate increase, he again called for the rate increase to be rejected and for Central Hudson to host additional public comment hearings on its proposed rate increase. That month, Ryan also joined with other local elected officials to call for a prudence review and civil penalty assessment to begin to make whole the Central Hudson customers who suffered from Central Hudson’s failed billing practices.
Since Congressman Ryan’s calls for an investigation into Central Hudson’s disastrous billing practices, he has received more than 11,000 formal complaints. A New York State Department of Public Service report revealed that Central Hudson’s billing system was riddled with hundreds of programming errors. This led to nearly 5,000 customers not receiving their bills, 8,000 customers being overcharged, and more than 30,000 customers whose autopay was billed incorrectly, costing them over $16 million.
Central Hudson replaced its CEO following Representative Ryan’s calls for his resignation on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. Ryan has held a series of workshops connecting Central Hudson customers in NY-18 with company representatives to resolve billing issues, to establish accountability, and to rebuild trust.
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