O&R's Annual Drive Raises Nearly $275,000 for United Way Programs; Named Top Donor for 11th Year With Record-Breaking Donation

PEARL RIVER, NY June 10, 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 and making O&R Rockland United Way's Top Donor for the 11th consecutive year.

O&R led this year's Rockland United Way campaign by combining 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 was honored at the Rockland United Way's Top Donor breakfast today at Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern. The Top Donor announcement was made by Rockland United Way Board Chairman Howard Hellman and Rockland United Way President and CEO Mimi Vilord.

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 and more successful.

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 employee.

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."

Earlier this year, O&R was honored for its support of community-based activities with the Corporate Citizenship Award from the Rockland Business Association.

O&R employs approximately 1,060 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.