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Pace Energy and Climate Center to Study Impacts of Long 2006 Power Outage in Western Queens, NY |
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Public Information
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| Date: |
March-30-2009 |
| News Release: |
| PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Jennifer Riekert
(914) 422-4128
jriekert@law.pace.edu
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Pace Energy and Climate Center to study impacts
of long 2006 power outage in western Queens, NY
Will partner with LaGuardia Community College
on research mandated by Public Service Commission settlement
When the lights stay out, findings to shed light on issues that may face other cities
WHITE PLAINS, NY, March 20, 2009 – In the summer of 2006, power was out for several days in the neighborhoods of Sunnyside, Woodside, Astoria and Long Island City in New York City’s borough of Queens. This meant no air conditioning during a heat wave, no lights, no elevators, gridlock from no traffic lights, limited subways, lost sales for closed businesses, lost wages for workers, health problems, and no rest for weary utility workers.
Concerned citizens formed a group called "Western Queens Power for the People" and demanded that the utility, Consolidated Edison, pay residents back for losses, expenses and lost wages over and above the items covered by Con Edison’s claim form for spoiled food. The group also wanted to know what measures the utility would take if a blackout happened again.
To measure the damage and losses, the group sought an economic and public health impact study, done by a third party and paid for by Con Edison. Last spring, Con Edison agreed such a study should go forward.
Now the Pace Law School’s Energy and Climate Center has been chosen to perform the research, which is expected to be finished by the end of August. The center has done pioneering studies on the role of law at the contentious intersections of energy and the environment for two decades, and is part of the school’s nationally-known environmental law program.
Though the study is focused on the geographical area of Con Edison’s Long Island City (LIC) network, its findings should provide knowledge about how a long-term outage affects any wide, metropolitan area.
Legal settlement. The study is coming about because Con Edison entered into a settlement proposal in a “prudence investigation” conducted by the New York State Public Service Commission. That required, among other things, that Con Edison “provide payment of up to $500,000 to a research entity for the completion of a study of the impact, including the economic and health impacts, of the July 2006 outage on the affected communities.”
The Pace Center recently executed the project agreements with Con Edison and the New York State Department of Public Service.
LaGuardia partnership. The Center will do the work in partnership with LaGuardia Community College, which has deep ties to the businesses and residents of the neighborhoods in the LIC grid area. LaGuardia will conduct the customer surveys and gather other data, which will be done more by face-to-face contacts in the neighborhoods than by impersonal telephone surveys. The committee cited this approach as an important factor in its decision to award the research work to Pace.
The Center also is working with an experienced bio-statistician and econometrician, Dr. Haftan Eckholdt, to guide the design of the customer survey and develop the sampling methodology so the study is statistically valid and can be cited and relied upon by the PSC and the parties to the prudence investigation.
Summer deadline. James Van Nostrand, the lawyer and energy expert who is executive director of the center, will head up the project team in conjunction with Dana Hall, the center’s energy policy coordinator. The center also expects to involve law-student interns in gathering data, working with LaGuardia, and writing the research report. Additional staff at the center will support the project as necessary. Most of the data will be gathered by the end of April, and the center has until the end of the summer to complete the research.
The Energy and Climate Center is an integral part of Pace Law School’s environmental law program, which is consistently ranked among the top three environmental law programs in the country by U.S. News & World Report. For over 20 years, the Center has been a leading multi-disciplinary organization in the areas of environmental research and advocacy on energy issues in New York and throughout the Northeast, while training law students in these areas.
Founded in 1976, Pace University School of Law has nearly 6,500 alumni throughout the country and the world. It offers full- and part-time day and evening JD programs on its White Plains, NY, campus. The School also offers the Master of Laws in Environmental Law, Real Estate Law and in Comparative Legal Studies and an SJD in environmental law. The School of Law is part of a comprehensive, independent, and diversified University with campuses in New York City and Westchester County. www.law.pace.edu
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