Emphasizing the crisis, Commissioner William K. Jones of the New York Public Service Commission said in a seventy-seven page report:

“Over the long run it is plain that the city of New York and related portions of Westchester County cannot hope to survive under present conditions​—these areas are being strangled by the lack of an adequate supply of vitally needed electric power.”

The average family in one section of New York city consumes daily, on the average, 17 kilowatt-hours of electricity, or nearly 23 horsepower-hours. That means an average family uses nearly as much electrical power as a horse would produce working around the clock, day in and day out, without ever stopping or getting tired.

In parts of New York city this power costs a family slightly less than 3 cents a kilowatt-hour, or not quite 50 cents a day for 17 kilowatt-hours.

The first steam-turbine electric plant went into operation ninety years ago in New York city.