Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Officials, residents raise concerns at third BPU hearing about utility company's storm response.
Nearly two months after Hurricane Sandy pummeled through the Northeast, the frustration about the communication from state officials and power companies in the storm aftermath is still a major discussion among members of the public. The quality and accuracy of the information flow was the key subject brought up at the Board of Public Utilities third public hearing at Hopatcong Middle School Tuesday night. More than 60 people, including local officials and residents from Morris, Sussex and Passaic counties, attended the meeting where over a dozen people commented and raised concerns to BPU and JCP&L officials about the state's preparedness and response after the storm that left millions across the state without power for days and some for …
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
BPU holds hearing from 4 to 7 p.m. at Hopatcong Middle School.
Nearly two months after Superstorm Sandy, residents will have the chance to tell state officials first-hand their concerns and suggestions for the storm response and what it was like to survive without power for days. The Board of Public Utilities will hold a public hearing on Tuesday at Hopatcong Middle School from 4 to 7 p.m. to hear input from residents all over the region about what the experience in the aftermath of Sandy was like. "We hope that residents are able to give us as much information as they have," said Greg Reinert, a spokesman for BPU. "What their experiences were, what did they experience as far as the outage, whether it was a line down or what information did they get regarding the outage, what information they weren't …
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Recently-released state Board of Public Utilities report charges FirstEnergy affiliate with being more concerned with image during Irene.
JCP&L, since Hurricane Irene in August 2011, has said it has committed a lot of money and resources toward improving not only how the utility communicates with its customers, but also how it runs its business. The state Board of Public Utilities, however, handed down a verdict in a recent report that states the FirstEnergy affiliate first spent more energy trying to save face, according to a NJBIZ.com article. The article notes the BPU report cites JCP&L's initial two Irene press releases from Aug. 28 and Aug. 25, 2011, the latter three days before the storm actually hit New Jersey. JCP&L "gave no indication that restoration could take several days or longer. Advice to customers appeared to have secondary importance," according to the BPU …
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Legislators should act quickly to increase penalties and force better management before next storm.
A month after receiving it, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities finally released last week the long-awaited consultant's report on the power outages that resulted from Tropical Storm Irene and the October 2011 snowstorm. Its 263 pages get into minute details of what happened and provide some important background on issues of statewide concern, including the pros and cons of burying power lines. But its overall message, that power companies did a less than sterling job in dealing with the massive outages that resulted from both storms, and in doing the maintenance work that could have prevented some of the problems, was already well-known. There was no reason why Gov. Chris Christie had to wait for the report, done by Emergency …
Roseanne Marie S.
10:42 am on Friday, December 21, 2012
Deborah you are right in saying there are bigger things going on in the world and I do think people have put it behind them. However I do think people are afraid of a repeat of the misinformation that ran rampant after the storm. If we don't learn from our mistakes we are doomed to repeat them. There was an instance of an elderly couple in another town choosing to stay in their home cause they … more ›