Assemblymember Sarahana Shrestha brought her six-town tour to push a Central Hudson takeover to Woodstock on Saturday, five days after the utility won rate increases and guaranteed executive bonuses that sparked immediate pushback from frustrated customers and politicians.
Shrestha is trying to gain traction for a bill that she introduced with state Senator Michelle Hinchey in May 2024 to turn CenHud into the Hudson Valley Power Authority, a non-profit that could access cheaper financing and generate its own power, unlike the utility. Those savings could help cut rates and upgrade infrastructure for a financially independent power provider that would embrace new technology, she says. The authority’s goal would be to cap energy bills at 6% of a customer’s income.
“People who fundamentally believe energy should not be for profit outnumber the people who are scared of the public sector running it,” Shrestha, an Esopus Democrat who co-chaired a local Chapter of Democratic Socialists of America before her 2022 election, said in an interview. “We just need to reach them.”
Shrestha is aiming to tap a deep well of anger from customers who have received inexplicable bills of thousands of dollars in recent years. The Facebook group “Citizens against Central Hudson” has more than 2,600 members, and the utility has racked up at least 20,000 billing complaints.
She heard from some of those frustrated customers at the packed Woodstock Community Center event. One woman choked up as she recounted how CenHud cut off her mother’s electricity for failing to pay a $3,000 bill. The result: Her fiancee lost refrigerated insulin worth thousands of dollars and her mother, who also attended the meeting, was forced to sell her home. Shresta said her office would help.
The Woodstock meeting followed last week’s decision by the Public Service Commission, the agency that regulates New York State utilities, to approve CenHud rate increases on delivery of electricity and gas in each of the next three years. That could raise monthly bills by $50 by 2028. The deal also includes $2.8 million of bonuses and $27 million of pay hikes at Fortis, the Canadian electric and gas company that owns CenHud.
Granted, the annual rate increases of more than 3% for electricity and between 5% and 7% for gas are far less than jumps of about 9% that CenHud sought earlier—spikes so high that Governor Kathy Hochul called them outrageous. The utility serves 315,000 electric customers and 90,000 gas customers.
Yet even the governor said in a statement that the new rates are “still not enough.” Her comments were echoed by Ulster County Executive Jen Metzger, who noted that the utility’s shareholders are being awarded a guaranteed 9.5% rate of return.
Shrestha acknowledged that CenHud is a deep-pocketed foe that would undoubtedly file a lawsuit to block a takeover. In any case, it wouldn’t come cheap: Preliminary estimates range from $561 million to $1.19 billion.”
She’s counting on support from local politicians and CenHud customers to move her bill forward, even if it takes years.
“When something happens in Albany in three to four years, that is considered lightning speed,” Shrestha said in Saturday’s interview.
Shrestha’s next stop is 6 p.m on Aug. 21 at the Starr Library in Rhinebeck. She plans to hold another meeting at the same time on Aug. 27 at the Rosendale Community Center. Sign up to attend at this link.
Susan Farkas is a contributing reporter. Send her an email at reporting@theoverlooknews.com.
