Power Outage Letter

Last month our region was slammed by storms that knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people. All of the utilities that operate in New York were impacted to some degree. Customers of Orange and Rockland Utilities and Central Hudson were hit particularly hard. Many households and businesses were without power for over a week. The utilities worked round the clock in treacherous conditions, brought in crews from out of state and spent what will likely total in the millions of dollars to restore power and provide emergency shelter and supplies.

As Chair of the Assembly Energy Committee, one of my responsibilities is to hold the utilities and the regulatory bodies that oversee them accountable for their stewardship of our electric grid. I could simply throw up my hands and chalk up the outages to what was one of the worst storms in recent memory as some have suggested, but that would not be fair to the brave men and women who risked their health and safety to restore power. It would not be fair to families that struggled to keep warm or the businesses that must contend with lost inventory and revenue.

Instead, the Energy Committee will be conducting hearings to examine all aspects of the outages, not for the purpose of criticizing the utilities, but rather to provide a forum to discuss what needs to be done to minimize the impact of future storms. Legislative hearings are an effective tool to examine vexing problems and develop appropriate responses. I considered waiting until the dust settled before calling for hearings as we did after the outages caused by the massive December 2008 ice storm. In this instance, especially since many customers were dealing with the second prolonged winter outage in the last 15 months, I decided it was important to move forward while the experience was still fresh.

Extreme weather events have become an increasingly common occurrence in our region. This necessary and helpful process will allow us to hear directly from the utility workers who risked their well being to get power restored so they can identify the resources they need to help do their jobs more safely and effectively in the future. Who better to provide insight into whether different staffing levels, infrastructure investments and tree trimming activities could have lessened the impact of this fact of Northeast winter life?

Representatives of the Public Service Commission, State Emergency Management Office, the utilities, the Red Cross and municipal leaders will join us in a substantive discussion about planning for and responding to stresses on our electric system. They will present their perspective on the preparation and response to the outages. Additionally, participants will be asked to assess whether problems identified during the review of the 2008 ice storm were addressed and if they were effective in responding to this storm. The hearings will also provide policymakers and the public an opportunity to explore issues that continue to threaten the integrity of our system, including whether our transmission and distribution grid is still viable given modern society's dependence on constant availability of power.

Clearly, the severe weather events of last month presented immeasurable challenges to the brave men and women who worked tirelessly in the most adverse conditions, using all the available resources, to respond. We can hope that we never find ourselves in this situation again, but when we do, let's make sure the investments in infrastructure and maintenance have been made, that utility crews and call centers are appropriately staffed, and emergency response coordination and communication are the very best we can offer.

Assemblymember Kevin Cahill
cahillk@assembly.state.ny.us
(845) 338-9610
(518) 455-4436

Assemblymember Kevin Cahill represents the 101st Assembly District, which is comprised of Ulster and Dutchess Counties. He is Chair of the Assembly Energy Committee.


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