Press Release

NEW YORK, NY, Jul 20, 2007 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX News Network) -- Con Edison crews continue to work with other agencies in the clean-up in midtown following Wednesday's steam-main rupture at Lexington Avenue and East 41 Street, where all but five of 19 steam service customers in the vicinity have had service restored. Work is continuing in order to restore the remaining customers.

The company also has been repairing damaged electrical cables, enabling it to end yesterday's calls for customers in the vicinity to reduce electrical usage.

Con Edison has located two customer service vans in the area, one at the corner of East 42 Street and Madison Avenue and the other at Lexington Avenue between East 45 and East 46 Streets, to accept the clothing of anyone in the area during Wednesday's events. The vans will be at those locations for the next few days from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Con Edison will arrange for the safe disposal of these items. Customer care personnel will be available to help people fill out a reimbursement request.

Building cleaning and repair efforts also are continuing in the area.

Air monitoring has confirmed no airborne asbestos, while several of the numerous samples of muddy debris taken from the area were found to contain trace levels of asbestos.

The New York City Department of Health (DOH) has a fact sheet that provides additional information about asbestos. Visit the DOH Web site for more information by clicking on the following link: http://home2.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/ei/eiasbest.shtml.

Contact: Michael Clendenin 212-460-4111