New O&R eBill Customers Planted Over 10,500 Trees

PEARL RIVER, NY September 28, 2009 — An O&R program, designed to encourage greater customer participation in the Company's electronic billing program, has resulted in the planting of over 10,500 trees in U.S. national forests damaged by fire, an increase of 4,900 trees over the past year alone.

O&R's eBill service is a free and easy way to receive, view and pay your monthly energy bill online. Each eBill provides a safe, secure link for customers to conduct business transactions with O&R, including options like online bill payment and electronic access to their account status, billing, usage and payment history.

Through an agreement with the National Arbor Day Foundation, O&R has arranged to plant a tree on behalf of every customer who has enrolled in this environmentally friendly billing option since April 2007, when the program began.

With eBill service, O&R sends enrolled customers an e-mail notification letting them know that their monthly bill is ready for viewing and payment. The e-mail contains a link that connects the customers directly to their accounts at www.oru.com.

O&R Public Affairs Director Tom Brizzolara said, "This program provides a direct environmental benefit by planting new trees in these fire-scarred forests: they prevent erosion, enrich the air, and provide wildlife habitats for an array of species."

He added, "The program also provides indirect environmental benefits such as cutting back on tree harvesting by reducing paper use, curtailing the generation of waste paper during the transaction and reducing automobile emissions by eliminating that trip to the post office to buy stamps and to mail the payment."

If all U.S. households viewed and paid their bills electronically, it would save 18.5 million trees — and prevent 2.2 billion tons of toxic pollutants from entering our air and 1.7 billion pounds of solid waster from fouling our land. That shift to electronic billing could also save 15.8 billion gallons of water.