Lawmaker Says Con Ed Owes Queens Residents
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Armed with new statistics on Consolidated Edison’s public relations spending, a state lawmaker said yesterday that the power company should do more to reimburse Queens businesses for losses they suffered from the July 2006 power blackout.
Assemblyman Michael Gianaris, a Queens Democrat, said he had learned that the utility spent $581,000 on a four-month-long public relations campaign aimed at the borough after the record 10-day outage, while refusing “full reimbursement” to local businesses that suffered from the breakdown.
Payments of $7,000 were not enough to keep some businesses from closing, he said. “If Con Ed had any decency it would immediately reimburse businesses for the full extent of the damage the company caused,” Mr. Gianaris said.
In response to Mr. Gianaris’ demand, Con Edison said in a statement on Sunday that it has spent about $90 million for emergency response, repairs, and improvements in Queens since the blackout.
