LETTER: Henderson on Green Energy Costing More Green
In a letter to MyRye.com, Rye Councilmember Bill Henderson says the City’s green energy default may not be the right answer and that not everyone in Rye is inclined or can afford to pay more to support climate activism.
Dear MyRye.com:
I am writing in response to your July 17, 2024, article: Council Renews Green Power Contract for Rye. Thank you for covering this important story.
On July 10, at a Special Meeting of the Rye City Council, the Council voted to extend its contract with Westchester Power (WP) for two years. The contract extension continued a 2019 consumer electricity program that placed all Rye citizens into a default scheme favoring WP, a more expensive electricity provider, instead of Con Ed, which had been Rye’s traditional lowest cost electricity provider. With the extension, Rye Residents will continue to be required to purchase WP’s more expensive electricity, which is sourced from renewable energy, unless they OPT OUT and choose to go back to Con Ed as their primary provider. All charges come through residents’ Con Ed bills.
One might ask – what is our Rye City government doing getting involved in its citizens electricity bills? Don’t they have better things to do? Why are they making Rye consumers pay more?
At the July 10 Council meeting, proponents argued that the WP program is needed for Rye to fight global climate change, a commendable goal that many in the Rye community support. However, looking at the effectiveness, cost and transparency of the WP scheme, it’s fair to be skeptical about whether this specific effort warrants public support.
Proponents of the WP scheme argued that WP’s offering locks in electricity rates, is competitive and could even be cheaper than Con Ed energy rates based on the timing of the contract. However, given the history of the WP program it seems reasonable to expect that WP’s electricity sourced from a mix of 50 to 100% renewable energy will continue to be more expensive than Con Ed electricity which is generally sourced from a higher mix of non-renewable and lower cost energy sources. We know that between 2019 and 2024, in 5 of 6 years, Rye’s WP contract electricity costs were more expensive than Con Ed sourced electricity. Over this time in the WP program, the average Rye consumer paid $880 to $1,150 more and Rye consumers in the aggregate paid $3.2 million to $4 million dollars more. [1]
Proponents also said that WP’s offering increases consumer choices. However, most Rye consumers will likely never become aware that their local government has chosen a more expensive option for them. We can surmise this by looking at the low Rye OPT OUT rate over the last 6 years (11.9%). Besides, Rye consumers who are aware that they have electricity choices can already OPT IN to 62 other independent electricity suppliers (ESCOs), most of which provide renewable energy. So, when you include Con Ed, why do Rye residents need a 64th choice?
This 64th option is important to its proponents because the WP scheme is a Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) program, different from the other ESCOs. The Westchester Power CCA program, is, in short, a volume play to get as many people as possible into a renewable energy program, whether they are inclined to join it or not. At the July 10 City Council meeting, WP’s representative made the frank admission that their CCA business model requires a large volume of customers, that they rely on municipalities to put all their residents in, and “inertia” to keep them in. In other words, the strategy is to get you in, put the burden on you to get out, and hope you don’t care or notice or have the time to do anything about it.
They hope you don’t notice – but not everyone in Rye is inclined or can afford to pay more to support climate activism.
It is fine to be concerned about climate change and to support renewable energy, but there must be better ways to do it.
Rye consumers who want out of the WP program should contact either Con Ed or Westchester Power and tell them you want to change back to Con Ed as your default supplier. Tell your friends and neighbors.
Bill Henderson
[1] These estimates come from WP and Con Ed, respectively.
And just try “Opting Out” and see if you can do it successfully. I sent them the Opt Out card and they ignored it. I had to call Con Ed and have them switch us out and then Con Ed locked the account so they couldn’t switch us back. This ‘ignore the Opt Out’ practice became part of a current complaint to the NYS Public Service Commission.
Thank you Bill Henderson for calling sustainable electricity for what it is: a high price alternative that uses a fair amount of traditional power sources to generate electricity and will cost homeowners a lot more money. I say, Live and Let Live…let people make their own electricity choices and do not foist a high cost plan on them.
Just as buying organic produce and driving electric vehicles costs more, so does green energy. But as with recycled paper and plastic products, eventually the costs will come down, especially as more consumers use it. So let’s keep it going – for the sake of our planet, please.