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SEPTEMBER 8, 2019, BROOKLYN WEEKLY
BY AIDAN GRAHAM
Gov. Andrew Cuomo threatened
to break up National Grid’s
stranglehold over natural gas in
Brooklyn last week amid their
ongoing war over a hotly contested
pipeline , which has left
would-be customers without gas
for more than three months and
counting.
“If National Grid is unable to
provide safe, affordable and reliable
service to existing customers,
or is unable to properly plan
so that it is able to serve new customers,
I direct you to consider
alternatives to National Grid as
franchisee for some or all of the
areas it currently serves,” the
governor wrote in a letter to the
Department of Public Service on
Aug. 27.
The British-based utility
company — which operates under
a state-granted monopoly
over gas service in Brooklyn,
Queens, and parts of Long Island
— announced a moratorium on
accepting new customers beginning
in late May, shortly after
state regulators put the kibosh
on Nat Grid’s scheme to construct
a 23-mile-long pipeline off
the coast of Coney Island that
would transport hydrofracked
gas from New Jersey to the Rockaways.
National Grid claims it needs
the added supply in order to meet
increasing energy demands, but
local leaders accuse the gas purveyor
of using local businesses
as pawns in its power struggle
with the state.
“National Grid does not have
a supply problem. They have a
greed problem,” said Coney Island
Councilman Mark Treyger.
“They’re holding people hostage
in the middle of this bureaucratic
tug of war.”
And as the gas company’s
moritorium approaches its third
month, Kings County business
owners are starting to feel the
squeeze.
One aspiring restaurateur
fi nished construction of a Mexican
eatery in Prospect Lefferts
Garden in May, but has been unable
to open because of National
Grid’s long-running embargo.
“I’m ready to open. I have everything
set up and ready to go.
If I could get gas, I’d be open,”
said Onishka Camarena. “If
I don’t get gas I’ll be done. I’ll
have to give it up... Everything I
worked for is going to be out the
window.”
Camerena has pleaded with
the energy giant to lift the newcustomer
National Grid is denying any new gas customers until state regulators approve a
controversial pipeline off the Coney Island coast — leaving small business owners
in a bind. Photo by Derrick Watterson
freeze and supply gas
to El Jeffe — on Parkside Avenue
between Flatbush and Ocean
avenues — but they’ve instead
shifted blame, directing her to
the New York State legislature.
“They tell me to contact my
state representative,” she said.
“For what? My state representative
didn’t help me open a
restaurant.”
During some peak-usage
hours, National Grid fails to meet
its demand using its own supply,
forcing them to purchase energy
from other suppliers, which cuts
into their bottom line, according
to one local state rep.
“The business model of National
Grid — their profi t model
— is that they want to own the
pipes, and control the gas that
they are distributing,” said Assemblyman
William Colton
(D—Midwood). “And they therefore
want to build a new pipeline
which will cost a billion
dollars.”
POWER MOVE
Cuomo fi res back at energy company for
starving hundreds of Brooklynites for gas