Bill Sanderson is reporting at Capital New York there is a class of electric customers in New York that has sharply lowered its costs to below the national average, thanks to effective lobbying and sympathetic state policy. Industrial power users, mostly upstate, pay per-kilowatt hour prices that are one-third what the state’s residential customers pay, a data analysis shows. Industrial power users buy electricity at prices that are 3.8 percent below national average rates. In New York, commercial and residential electric customers pay rates that are around 50 percent higher than the national average. Bill Ferris of AARP, which has been lobbying for the establishment of a state utility consumer advocate office, thinks consumers deserve a break too. Ferris said, “There has been a concerted effort in New York state to lower prices for industrial users and business users. We would like to see the same effort by the state to lower the rates of residential ratepayers.” Read the full story at Capital New York.