[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 21 (Wednesday, February 1, 2023)]
[House]
[Pages H582-H583]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1015
                      CENTRAL HUDSON OVERCHARGING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New 
York (Mr. Ryan) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. RYAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to bring voice to my constituents 
who have been screwed over and ripped off by our utility company, 
Central Hudson.

[[Page H583]]

  My colleagues here may never have heard of Central Hudson, but the 
people of the Hudson Valley know them all too well.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today for the farmer in Ulster Park, New York, 
who received such a massive utility bill, $16,585, 17 times her normal 
bill, that she actually contemplated suicide. She described the debt, 
which put her at risk of losing her family farm, as a guillotine 
hanging over her head.
  I rise for the single mother in Kingston who told me she is afraid to 
cook for her four kids because turning on the stove means facing a 
gigantic gas bill.
  For the mayor of our city of Newburgh, who received a bill of 
$708,000 for a single month of electricity at his three-bedroom family 
home; for senior citizens on a fixed income who had their entire 
checking accounts wiped out by an autopay withdrawal.
  I could tell hundreds more of these stories and still not scratch the 
surface of this incredible corporate ineptitude.
  Mr. Speaker, we rely on our public utilities for a necessary service. 
They exist for the public good. They are built on a foundation of 
public trust.
  Central Hudson, and its CEO, Mr. Charles Freni, have irrevocably 
broken this trust. Since my calls for an investigation into Central 
Hudson's disastrous billing practices almost a year ago, we have 
received more than 11,000 formal complaints. A New York State 
Department of Public Service report revealed Central Hudson's billing 
system was riddled with hundreds of programming errors, leading to 
nearly 5,000 customers not receiving their bills, 8,000 customers 
overcharged, and more than 30,000 customers whose autopay was billed 
incorrectly, costing them over $16 million.
  I want to be clear. I do not fault the hardworking employees of 
Central Hudson. They begged for additional training. They suggested 
improvements to this system. They worked hours and hours of overtime. 
They wanted to do the right thing for the people of the Hudson Valley, 
but Central Hudson and its CEO clearly did not.
  Just 2 weeks ago in response to this devastating Public Service 
Commission report documenting their systemic failures, Central Hudson 
doubled-down on their deflection, their denial, and their deception. 
Rather than taking ownership of their failures, they claimed that no 
customers were overcharged and that nobody lost any money.
  Give me a break.
  Central Hudson's leadership deliberately chose to sweep these 
problems under the rug. Why?
  Because now owned by a multibillion-dollar and multinational 
corporation, they chose to put profits over people. At the same time as 
customers'--my constituents'--bills were skyrocketing and bank accounts 
were literally being emptied out, their revenues were up over 30 
percent and their profits--surprise, surprise--they are up, too.
  Central Hudson has had opportunity after opportunity to own their 
mistakes and take accountability, but time and again they have failed 
to do so.
  Mr. Speaker, there is simply no excuse for this. At a time when our 
families are facing tremendous economic pressure, the last thing they 
need to worry about is their bank accounts being emptied out just 
because they tried to power their home.
  Because of these failures and because of Central Hudson's continued 
unwillingness to take accountability, today I am calling on Central 
Hudson's CEO, Mr. Charles Freni, to do the right thing for our 
community and to resign.
  We need a new leader who will come in, improve service, finally fix 
these systemic problems, and start the critical work to rebuild trust 
with our community. That is what the people of the Hudson Valley 
deserve.

                          ____________________