Stop the Williams Pipeline Coalition Comment Prompt: Stop the abuse of power            

For commenting on Williams Transco’s (WT) third application for water quality certification as issued by the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation. This comment will double as both a comment to the DEC and the head commissioner at the Public Service Commission, John Rhodes.

Background:

In New York, public utilities are natural monopolies because the infrastructure required to produce and deliver a product such as electricity, gas or water is very expensive to build and maintain, and having more than one company building infrastructure would make our streets a mess. As a result, they are granted special status as monopolies, but are overseen and regulated by a public utilities commission to ensure accountability to the public. However, utilities can easily take advantage of their power—and that's what National Grid has done.

This week, National Grid sent out an email blast to their customers taking a play from our activist handbook to “send comments to the DEC” in favor of the Williams Transco pipeline. In so doing they are abusing their monopoly power to panic customers into lobbying for their private profit.