He’s defended Con Ed in crisis after crisis and today, despite the widespread power loss resulting from Hurricane Sandy, Mayor Bloomberg pronounced the utility the best in America.
“Con Ed did not have any real damage in underground electric. They had one sub-station (that went out),” the mayor said on his weekly radio show.
“I keep saying this and everybody wants to shoot me for it. If you look at the national statistics, this happens to be virtually the best utility company in the country.”
Hundreds of thousands of Con Ed customers lost electricity when the super-storm struck last month.
Most of the affected homes were in low-lying areas.
But a large swath of Manhattan below 40th Street was also powerless for four days after the utility’s sub-station on 14th Street flooded.
Bloomberg argued that Con Ed took all the precautions it could, including building a sea wall at 14th Street higher than any previous storm surge. Unfortunately, Sandy shattered historical records and tossed the East River above the Con Ed wall.
“Are they perfect. No. And it’s a lot of would’ve, should’ve and could’ve and second-guessing,” the mayor concluded. “They’ve done a very good job, and they did not have a lot of damage.”
On a related front, Bloomberg shot down the idea of plugging subway tunnels for the next mega-storm.
“I think a legitimate question is if this happens only once every 110 years and if they did get it back as quickly as they did, is that a good use of your money?” he asked.
“You’re probably better off taking those dollars and expanding the subway out to where people now live compared to when they did 100 years ago when the subways were built.”
“But the Governor is right…There are things you can do,” the mayor added.