New York City gets about 10 percent of its electricity from coal. Since Mayor Bloomberg is so anti-coal, why doesn’t he man up and stop the city from using any coal for its electrical needs? It’s only 10 percent, right?

Maybe because on days like today, NYC needs every drop of juice it can get:

Con Edison says it has reduced power to tens of thousands of customers in Queens and Westchester County because of electrical equipment problems.
The company says in a statement that the voltage reduction was done as a precaution to protect equipment and maintain service as crews work to repair the problem.
The reduction affects about 107,000 customers in the Maspeth area of Queens. In Westchester, 29,000 customers are affected in Elmsford, Greenburgh, Ardsley, Irvington and Tarrytown.
Con Edison is asking customers in the areas to conserve energy and avoid using appliances such as washers, dryers, air conditioners and other energy-intensive equipment.
The company didn’t detail the equipment problem or provide information on when full power would be restored.

Without coal, far more Gotham homes would be dealing with a brownout today, if not a blackout (which is by no means out of the question this week, even with “dirty” coal in the city’s energy mix). If Greens like Nanny Bloomberg get their way, too little power will be the new normal.