Con Ed’s attempt to reward its top execs with fat bonuses before the region has fully recovered from Hurricane Sandy couldn’t have been more bone-headed. Not least because it gave Gov. Cuomo an easy target.
As The Post noted yesterday, Cuomo ordered a probe into $614,400 in extra pay for four Con Ed execs. All four have since agreed to return the money.
What could the utility have been thinking? True, Sandy was “challenging,” as Con Ed CEO Kevin Burke put it. Yet the hefty paychecks these executives receive surely aren’t just for their work during nice weather. They’re also paid to deal with the “challenges” — such as bad storms.
More important, Con Ed has long been a favorite whipping boy (who likes paying electric bills?). So the move was sure to give Cuomo another excuse to play the champ — and blast Con Ed. Which he did.
“No ratepayer should pay a single penny for bonuses” to execs, especially for “their performance during Sandy,” huffed the gov.
But Con Ed rates have to be OK’d by the state. And bonuses cannot be included in the calculation of rates. Cuomo knows this. And if he thought the utility was trying to pull a fast one, he could have looked into it privately, without the public foot-stomping.
Alas, the gov’s been beating up the utilities ever since Sandy, even as the one that performed worst during the storm — the Long Island Power Authority — reports to . . .him. And here’s the kicker: New Yorkers pay some of the highest energy costs in the nation. Yet Cuomo won’t allow fracking for natural gas, which might push rates down. And he wants to close the Indian Point nuclear power plant in Westchester, which would likely send costs higher yet.
Until the governor takes some real steps to curb energy rates by expanding supply, it’s hard to take his Con Ed rage seriously.