Con Edison's e*Bill Program Seeds Trees at Upper West Side School

Two trees were planted at P.S. 163 on Manhattan's Upper West Side today thanks to funds raised by Con Edison's growing online payment program, e*Bill, which donates $1 to Trees New York for each customer who signs up for the environmentally friendly, paperless billing option.

Since 2007, Con Edison has enrolled 109,000 customers in e*Bill in New York City and Westchester County, including 4,131 customers on the Upper West Side. Today's plantings took place near the schoolyard of P.S. 163, located at 163 West 97th Street. The company also recently funded the planting of 17 trees on other school properties in Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn.

"Every tree planted as a result of the e*Bill program represents the power that each customer has to make our neighborhoods greener and healthier," said Marilyn Caselli, senior vice president of Customer Operations at Con Edison. "I encourage more customers to sign up. It's an easy way to cut down on paper consumption, and schoolchildren will enjoy these trees for decades to come."

The Con Edison e*Bill program is a fast, convenient and environmentally friendly payment option. Each month, Con Edison notifies customers via e-mail when bills are ready for viewing. Switching to e*Bill is easy and customers can visit www.conEd.com/ebill to enroll.

Recent studies show that if all U.S. households viewed and paid their bills electronically, it would save 18.5 million trees* -- avoiding 2.2 billion tons of air pollutants, 1.7 billion pounds of solid waste, and saving 15.8 billion gallons of water.

The e*Bill program is one of Con Edison's comprehensive environmental initiatives through EnergyNY, the company's plan to meet the future energy needs of its customers through infrastructure upgrades and energy efficiency programs. EnergyNY can be viewed at www.conEd.com/energyny.

Con Edison is a subsidiary of Consolidated Edison, Inc. (NYSE: ED), one of the nation's largest investor-owned energy companies, with approximately $13 billion in annual revenues and $29 billion in assets. The utility provides electric, gas and steam service to more than 3 million customers in New York City and Westchester County, New York. For additional financial, operations and customer service information, visit Con Edison's Web site at www.conEd.com.

*Calculated in 2003 by Javelin Strategy & Research, using information from EPA, Alliance for Environmental Innovation, USPS, and USFS.