Letter from Shelby Cohen

NYSEG to Josh Riley

We’re disappointed with Congressman Josh Riley’s deliberate mis-characterization last week of our company and our 3,200 employees who live and work in Upstate New York.

Our number one priority is powering New York’s communities, including the congressman’s district. While we understand he is preparing for a difficult election cycle in an increasingly challenging political environment, our company, union, and employees do not appreciate his increasingly intolerant and divisive rhetoric. It is unproductive and overlooks real solutions we have asked to work with him on. It is also making it harder for our employees to do their jobs safely in their communities.

As storms become stronger, communities grow, and our customers use the grid in new ways, 20th-century infrastructure is being strained by 21st-century challenges. As we have shared with the congressman, the Iberdrola Group has backed NYSEG and RG&E with more than $1 billion in financing over the last decade, provided access to global supply chains that would otherwise be out of reach, and used bulk purchasing power to help get lower prices for supplies and equipment. Those facts speak for themselves, even if the congressman chooses to ignore them.

We encourage Congressman Riley to learn more about our employees and the infrastructure sites we are urgently working to upgrade. By doing so, we believe he will see the value our company is creating for New York families, businesses, and communities, and the impact his words are having on the men and women who work at NYSEG and RG&E.

And, at a time when energy prices are rising across the nation, we are surprised the congressman would propose such a radical approach [Keep the Lights Local] that would reduce competition and raise costs on New Yorkers. We need more energy investments, not less. Congressman Riley has the opportunity to affect real change at the federal level but is forsaking it for cheap shots that only serve to move us backwards.

Shelby Cohen
NYSEG Director of New York Communications