Dear Editorial Team: I write in response to your recent editorial, "Metzger's Dine and Dash Plan for Central Hudson." I must admit that I find the headline of the editorial baffling. My comments to the Public Service Commission have nothing to do with dining, or dashing, or sticking anyone with the bill. I think that both the headline and the overall message of the editorial represent a fundamental misinterpretation of my criticism of the shortcomings of Central Hudson's resiliency plan.

Central Hudson is required by the New York State Public Service Commission to develop a plan that improves the grid's resilience to weather and climate-related impacts, and keeps us safe. Your editorial suggests that we should demand less of the utility when it comes to protecting our communities from power outages and the costs of storm-related damages to the grid — costs that can be enormous to ratepayers when we are hit with major storms or flooding. Electricity is a fundamental need. A loss of power can be a matter of life or death for vulnerable residents in cold temperatures or periods of extreme heat, or if they depend upon electricity for medical needs like oxygen and refrigeration of insulin. Bolstering our resilience to the impacts of climate change is not something our communities want Fortis-Central Hudson to cut corners on.

Your editorial incorrectly suggests that I am calling for investments that will increase rates, when in fact I pointed out a failure by the utility to consider more cost-effective opportunities to strengthen resilience. Most of the outages in Ulster County are caused by downed trees and limbs from wind and storm events. The only remediation considered by Central Hudson is tree-trimming and a very limited plan to underground some power lines over the next 20 years, which will leave the great majority of customers without any meaningful protection against outages. I suggested that Central Hudson look to neighboring Vermont, where Green Mountain Power — a utility similar in size to Central Hudson — has implemented residential energy storage programs that have proven to reduce costs for the utility and save ratepayers money, while also providing residents with backup power in the event of a power outage. The cost-saving benefit of distributed battery storage is enormous. By using batteries to balance load, the utility can reduce the need to purchase the most expensive "peaker" power at the highest-load times, lowering costs for everyone. Your editorial team seems to have missed this cost-reduction point entirely.

Your editorial also makes the erroneous claim that fuel oil is cheaper for heating than all-electric systems. This may be true of the relatively few homes in our area with outdated resistance heating systems, but it is not true of homes using heat pumps, which are up to three times more energy efficient than oil and propane systems. Heat pumps are also far more efficient at cooling than conventional air conditioning, providing bill savings year-round. And they are far less damaging to the planet than fossil fuel-based systems, which helps to reduce the severity of climate change in the future.

I continue to hope that Central Hudson finds its way out of its outdated way of thinking about resiliency and efficiency, because we deserve better.

Jen Metzger

Ulster County Executive