Sustainable Westchester 2024 Contract: a 10-Part Series

DUBLIN, IRELAND (October 27, 2024) — The work on my 10-part series began in May. As you can see by clicking through the series (below), there were all sorts of concerns expressed by Councilmembers Tarantino, Stern, Peters, Lopez, and Mayor Ramos-Herbert back in May and June and all sorts of assurances made by Nick Tedrow of Sustainable Westchester in June.

There was talk about public engagement and education on Westchester Power and how to opt-out; how to help those who struggle to pay their bills, working-class households, the elderly, those living on fixed incomes, and those who struggle with the English language. There were assurances by Tedrow that Sustainable Westchester was happy to hold hyper-local presentations in each council district, at senior housing buildings, at houses of worship and hold meetings in languages other than English.

As it became clear that absolutely none of that was happening, I began asking questions and raising concerns as to why Councilmembers Tarantino, Stern, Peters, Lopez, and Mayor Ramos-Herbert were not raising the alarm that Sustainable Westchester was not delivering on their promises to them. That is mostly what this series is about.

I am omitting Councilmembers Sara Kaye and Shane Osinloye: Kaye because she recused herself from Sustainable Westchester discussions and votes due to her conflict of interest; Osinloye because he dismissed concerns about the cost of an extra 5 cents per kWh (a 50% increase in electricity supply costs) on working-families which is rich coming from a person who has never worked at a real, full-time job, has never had his own family, never owned a house, never had an apartment lease, never had an electrical bill in his own name, has never been a Westchester Power customer, and so can afford to stick lower-income and fixed-income residents with higher energy costs that he does not pay himself.

With the opt-out deadline of October 20 having come and gone, I am left to wonder whether Martha Lopez and David Peters will act differently in June 2025 when they are being asked to renew yet another Westchester Power contract, having been lied to over the course of 2024.

While no one knows what the difference will be between the Westchester Power fixed rate for 100% Renewable Supply of 13.298 cents/kWh and the Con Edison variable rate over the life of the one-year contract, the contract appears set to start with Con Edison at about 9 cents/kWh or about 48% higher which will cost New Rochelle ratepayers about $300-400 a year extra just so a few Councilmembers can feel the warm glow of foisting a phony green energy scam on a large number (about 57%) of Westchester Power customers in New Rochelle who have no idea they are in the Westchester Power program (or that they can opt out or how to opt-out).

Martha Lopez very specifically articulated concerns about voting to put her constituents into a program that is unaffordable to seniors and working families and said that ESL speakers in her district struggle to opt-out due to the language barrier then voted for it anyway then failed to speak out when the City Manager, Development Commissioner and Sustainable Westchester did none of what she said she believed was important.

David Peters repeatedly expressed a desire for Sustainable Westchester to hold district-level meetings throughout New Rochelle. When he voted to authorize the MOU with Sustainable Westchester, he sanctimoniously declared himself “satisfied” with the commitment he got from Nick Tedrow to hold such meetings then remained silent when Sustainable Westchester failed to hold a single such meeting in his district (D3).

The only meeting that was held was at the New Rochelle Public Library (D4). It was English-only. There was no effort to address the language issues raised by Martha Lopez and Yadira Ramos-Herbert.

After the opt-out deadline, I made a FOIL request for “All communications between Councilmembers to and from Administration and Staff about Sustainable Westchester from May 1, 2024 to Present” to see if there is any record of the Councilmembers expressing any concerns directly to the administration without making those concerns public.

Here is the series with a brief description of each chapter:

Sustainable Westchester 2024 Contract: Part I (Detailed introduction)

Sustainable Westchester 2024 Contract: Part II (email exchange with Martha Lopez on using the Reverse 911 system)

Sustainable Westchester 2024 Contract: Part III (the various lies contained in past mailers sent out by New Rochelle and Sustainable Westchester)

Sustainable Westchester 2024 Contract: Part IV (my email to City Council about the first-ever Westchester Power Presentation to the New Rochelle City Council in 2015 by Sustainable Westchester Founder Mike Gordon)

Sustainable Westchester 2024 Contract: Part V (my email to City Council about the Westchester Power information page being absolutely buried deep within the City of New Rochelle website)

Sustainable Westchester 2024 Contract: Part VI (my email exchange with Matt Stern, about his confidence that the new Westchester Power contract would be “more favorable” for New Rochelle residents, which turned out not to be the case)

Sustainable Westchester 2024 Contract: Part VII (my email to City Council about the Rye/Westchester Power mailer; a detailed campaign by Rye to educate residents on their options with the 2024-25 contract)

Sustainable Westchester 2024 Contract: Part VIII (my email to Martha Lopez, David Peters and Al Tarantino about the total absence of community engagement with residents on Westchester Power)

Sustainable Westchester 2024 Contract: Part IX (in the waning days of the opt-out period, the City finally ran an ad on their home page, just nine days before the opt-out deadline of October 20, except they used a fake link)

Sustainable Westchester 2024 Contract: Part X (my closing thoughts on New Rochelle’s shoddy treatment of residents, with additional details)

Sustainable Westchester 2024 Contract: 10 Part-Series | Table of Contents (this article)