O&R's Annual Drive Raises Nearly $275,000 for United Way; Employees and Shareholders Break Record for 2nd Year

PEARL RIVER, NY March 6, 2008 — Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc. raised nearly $275,000 for this year's 2007-2008 United Way annual fundraising drive, breaking the Company's all-time campaign record for the second year in a row.

O&R's United Way campaign combined a dynamic fund-raising drive partnership between the Company and its bargaining unit, IBEW Local 503, with a dollar-for-dollar, shareholder match, to raise $274,884.

O&R Campaign Chairmen Kevin Pfeil and Brian McPartland made the announcement today, completing the Company's drive for this year.

O&R adopted "doing well by doing good" as one of its guiding principals many years ago and since then has put those words into action every day through the Company's strong support for community-based programs that make the communities it serves stronger, more vibrant, more successful community.

That's why O&R has been honored this year with the Corporate Citizenship Award from the Rockland Business Association.

By the very nature of its business as an energy delivery company, O&R thrives when the community flourishes. The more attractive the community is to growth and development, new businesses and new homes, the more successful O&R and its employees.

That's just one reason why, over the past 10 years, O&R and its employees have donated more than $5 million to enrich the quality of life in the communities they serve.

The O&R-IBEW Local 503 fund-raising drive raised $137,442 from among O&R's current employees and its retirees. The Company matched that sum with another $137,442 from the shareholder funds of Consolidated Edison, Inc., O&R's parent company. The average O&R employee donation this year was a generous $197.47.

Since 1993, O&R and Local 503 have donated over $2 million in employee contributions and shareholder matches to the United Way.

O&R President and CEO John D. McMahon said, "O&R is enormously proud to once again break its own record. We are proud of the deep and continuing connection to the communities we serve. We believe that there is no purer expression of that dedication to a community's ideals than this remarkable achievement."

He added, "Our employees worked hard to make this a truly Company-wide effort. The result is a testament to selfless giving by O&R employees for the benefit of their communities."

O&R employs approximately 1040 people, almost all of whom also are O&R customers.

O&R has about 111,700 electric customers and about 86,600 gas customers in Rockland County. O&R has served Rockland County since 1899 when S.R. Bradley bought Nyack Light & Power Company and merged it with Union Electric Co. to create Rockland Light and Power Co.