'Babe my apartment is 80 degrees WITH air conditioners on!': Bill de Blasio is slammed on Twitter after telling New Yorkers to cut power usage on hottest day since 2013
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is being slammed on Twitter after he told New Yorkers to cut power usage on the hottest day in eight years.
De Blasio said on Wednesday that the city was experiencing a heat emergency and called on residents to take 'immediate' action to cut down electricity usage in their homes in a bid to avoid power outages.
'We need New Yorkers to take IMMEDIATE action: reduce your use of electricity in your home or your business for the rest of the day. We need to avoid energy disruptions during this heat emergency,' he tweeted.
'The extreme heat will hopefully break early tomorrow morning. Let's get to that point safely.'
Bill de Blasio said on Wednesday that NYC was experiencing a heat emergency and called on residents to take 'immediate' action to cut down electricity usage in their homes
Temperatures reached highs of 98 degrees in parts of Manhattan on Wednesday afternoon - the highest since about 2013.
The Mayor was immediately slammed on Twitter by those sweltering in their apartment while still working from home.
Others called from him to switch of the billboards in Times Square instead to help conserve energy.
'Babe my apartment is 80 degrees WITH air conditioners on right now, lights off, and curtains over all the windows. How bout we look for other things to turn off, no?' one Twitter user said.
Another said: 'Times Square is using a billion watts for signs but I gotta turn my AC off if I'm in NYC. Okay, bro.'
'Sure. Put the burden on people stuck working from home and every other schmuck out there trying not to die from heatstroke and not the gigantic corporate advertisements lighting up the streets,' another New Yorker tweeted.
'What should we do instead of using AC? Just 'think cold thoughts'. I've got one, how about how y'all promised frontline delivery ppl and grocery store workers hazard pay for doing their jobs BRAVELY during the lockdowns and they never got it. That was pretty cold of you,' another tweeted.
One tweet read: 'It's reprehensible you'd rather people not be able to breathe, than dim unnecessary things like ads/electric signage,' one Twitter user wrote.
'Companies can get a refund/credit. People can't be brought back from the dead. Shut down offices, make people in mansions pick a room.'
'Just turn Times Square and the expwy billboards off... tell the MTA to turn off their digital, heat generating ad boards on the subway. Turn that giant metal beehive off too,' one person tweeted.
New York - and the rest of the country - have been gripped by a heat wave this week that has seen temperatures surge to record highs.
Utility company Con Edison on Wednesday urged customers in the New York City area to limit energy use to avoid any potential power outages.
About 3,000 customers - the majority in Brooklyn - were without power on Wednesday night.
The company said about 64,000 customers had been affected after it reduced power voltage by 8 percent to parts of the city's Queens borough while crews work to repair equipment.
