National Grid uses green stimulus funds and hires non-union electricians

despite the customer request for IBEW workers.

The customer was told, too bad, we won't do it (the job) then.

This was in Oswego NY.

WTF? Do you have a link? (WTF directed at National Grid, not you.)

This is real time events. It was discussed at my husband's union meeting last week. It will likely not make the papers as people are so inured to stuff like this. It would have made the papers 20 years ago.

Nat'l Grid does have union employees -- linemen. They certainly don't have as many as were employed when the public utility was Niagara Mohawk.

We call them National Greed around here. link

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- National Grid today will ask state regulators for a $390 million-a-year increase in electric delivery rates — roughly 20 percent — to help it cope with higher costs and lower sales.

If the state Public Service Commission approves the three-year deal, it would take effect in January 2011 and run through the end of 2013.
Customers would see little if any change in their bills if regulators approve the utility’s plan. That's because National Grid is offering to delay the collection of other payments due from customers in 2011, stretching out the collection over four years instead of one. That would make room for a $390 million increase in rates without raising customer bills.

This is the first major electric rate case for National Grid since it bought the former Niagara Mohawk in January 2002. The rate plan adopted then was supposed to last until 2012, but Grid officials decided to come in a year early for a new deal because the utility faces rising costs to fix up its aging network of poles and wires.

"This provides the company the financial stability to continue to invest in our networks and earn adequate returns to attract necessary capital,'' said Tom King, president of U.S. operations, in a prepared statement.
Grid officials say the utility’s infrastructure requires more investment than what is allowed under the company's current rate plan. In addition, electric sales are down because of the recession, necessitating a higher rate per kilowatt-hour.

Because of the financial squeeze, National Grid officials complain that their shareholders have only earned a 5 percent return on their investment this year. The British company’s top executives expect their business units to earn at least 10 percent returns.


National Grid won a $39 million increase in its Upstate natural gas rates last year, down from the $95 million it requested. In Massachusetts, National Grid sought a $111 million increase in electric delivery rates, which regulators cut to $44 million in November.


The assholes charged us a surcharge of $20 on gas because we decreased our usage "too much" back in 2005.

for overcharging. Now they ask for a rate increase. They have raised their delivery rates in the past as well.

They are a monopoly. I don't know why they are permitted to be a for profit and privately held. And they are a British corporation.

than most others. They deserve the jobs.