Energy companies accused of price fixing

From the NY Post:

If you pay an electric bill in the city, you've been had.

Every Con Ed customer in the five boroughs overpaid an average total of at least $40 over two years during a price-fixing scheme set up by the owners of a giant Queens power plant, the feds charge in a court case that would let the alleged gougers get away with most of the gains.

The $157 million plot was allegedly put in motion by KeySpan, former owners of the Ravenswood generators in Astoria. Con Ed customers in the city were soaked for at least $119 million in the scheme, and upstaters were taken for another $38 million.

The real take likely was much more. The $157 million estimate -- by a consultant hired by angry Con Ed execs -- covers only the first year of the alleged scam, which ran from May 2006 to February 2008.

KeySpan's new owner, National Grid, has agreed with the US Justice Department to pay a measly $12 million fine. A Manhattan federal judge still has to sign off on the deal.