Kingston, NY – While Assemblymember Shrestha is in session in Albany amidst budget negotiations, a representative of her office will submit the following comment on her behalf at today’s PSC hearing in Kingston:

“We give investor-owned utilities like Central Hudson monopoly franchises in return for two things: universal service of electricity, and the right to regulate what they can charge customers. The mandate of the Public Service Commission is to ensure that utilities chargejust and reasonable rates, with the underlying assumption that the rates be just and reasonable not only for customers, but also for the utility that needs to make a profit in order to survive in a nonsensical world of finance, where the logic of money doesn’t follow the logic of needs, an economic system known as capitalism. Even with that consideration, the current rates do not fit the description of just and reasonable, owing largely to the high authorized rate of return on equity, or ROE, utilities are granted, which allows them to collect more profits from customers than what is fair. 

In the words of Franklin D. Roosevelt, “As the agent of the Legislature, the Public Service Commission had, and has, a definitely delegated authority and duty to act as the agent of the public themselves; that it is not a mere arbitrator as between the people and the public utilities, but was created for the purpose of seeing that the public utilities do two things: first, give adequate service; second, charge reasonable rates; that, in performing this function, it must act as agent of the public, upon its own initiative as well as upon petition, to investigate the acts of public utilities relative to service and rates, and to enforce adequate service and reasonable rates.”

Central Hudson’s ROE is currently 9.2%, which gives it the right to charge customers a profit of about 4.4 cents for every dollar of shareholder investment it spends on capital projects. In 2023, this rate was 9%. According to a 2025 report from American Liberties Project, for rates to be considered “just and reasonable” for both sides, the authorized ROE should be far lower, closer to 6%, which I urge the PSC to look into and consider.

Finally, given that the energy delivery infrastructure is an expensive one to maintain, and the energy it provides is a basic need, the PSC should consider doing an analysis on whether public ownership of utilities would be a better model for keeping rates low and giving ratepayers the transparency, quality of service, and community participation they deserve.