Shebam! Pow! Blop! Wizz!

Con Ed finds 17 gazillion stray voltage sites:

Consolidated Edison, responding to testing requirements imposed after a woman was electrocuted while walking her dog in the East Village in 2004, found 1,214 instances of stray voltage during a yearlong examination of electrical equipment on city streets, officials disclosed at a City Council hearing yesterday.

The stray voltage was detected from December 2004 through November 2005 on 1,083 streetlights, 99 utility poles and 32 power-distribution structures like manholes, service boxes and transformer vaults, according to test results submitted to the state’s Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities.

Meanwhile, City Councilmembers can’t resist the cheap and easy grandstanding opportunities that follow:

Several lawmakers said that Con Ed’s efforts to detect stray voltage, while laudable, were inadequate. “It’s 2006, and New Yorkers should not be afraid to walk on sidewalks and streets for fear of being shocked by an electric current,” said Councilman John C. Liu, a Queens Democrat who is chairman of the Transportation Committee, which held the hearing.

Councilman Peter F. Vallone Jr., who championed a 2004 law that required the city’s Department of Transportation to check at least 250 randomly selected sites for stray voltage every year, said the Public Service Commission should conduct independent tests beyond those of Con Ed and the city agency.

“As representatives of people who have to walk through minefields of stray voltage and exploding manhole covers, we believe you have completely abdicated your responsibility,” Mr. Vallone told Paul B. Powers, the executive deputy to the commission’s chairman. Mr. Powers replied that the commission, a regulatory and rate-setting body, did not have the resources to conduct extensive stray-voltage tests.

Later, Mr. Vallone, a Queens Democrat, accused Con Ed of being slow to act. “Your slogan needs to change from ‘On It’ to ‘Don’t Step on It,’ ” he quipped.