(Wayne, NJ  State Sen. Kevin O’Toole (Bergen, Essex, Morris Passaic) has requested that two major power companies in the region give their customers financial relief for power outages related to Hurricane Sandy.

O’Toole has written to executives at Jersey Central Power and Light  Co.  Orange and Rockland Utilities Co. asking that they follow the lead of utility giant Newark- based Public Service Electric & Gas Co. and allow customers to make deductions from their utility for the days they went without power to their homes and businesses. 

“While we all understand the impact, this storm had on our communities, it would be highly unfair and callas on the part of your utility to expect the residents or business owners to pay for power when they were without it,” O’Toole’ wrote to  Donald Lynch, president of JCP&L and  Mr. William G. Longhi, president  and Chief Executive Officer of Orange & Rockland Utilities, Inc.

O’Toole says it would only add insult to injury to require customers to pay  for service from power companies when many people in the region were without electricity for a week or more.

“Residents were forced to endure the hardship and cost of being without power for nearly two weeks in some instances,” said O’Toole. “For them to get a bill in the mail as if there were no service interruption would be nothing short of an arrogant disregard for the difficulties that many people endured during Hurricane Sandy.”