Chuck Schumer rips Con Ed bill spike

By Danika Fears and Amber Sutherland

April 18, 2014

The price of electricity is too darn high, says Sen. Chuck Schumer.

New York’s senior senator called on the Federal Trade Commission and other federal agencies to investigate an alarming spike in energy prices this past winter.

Schumer pointed to one Brooklyn resident charged 13.82 cents per kilowatt hour in February 2013 and 20.52 cents in February 2014.

In January, Con Edison warned customers to expect a 21.6 percent rise in their February bills as compared to the previous year, blaming an increase in natural-gas costs over the bitter winter.

Schumer isn’t convinced.

“When you look at the price that natural gas went up and you look at the price many people’s electric bills went up from different utilities throughout the state, the two don’t seem to match up,” he said.

Con Edison said the company “supports the senator’s efforts” and is ­already looking into the price surge.

National Grid echoed that sentiment, saying “these costs are not controlled by the utility and are passed on without markup to our customers.”