Mayor Urges Energy Conservation as Teachers File Complaint over Heat

Con Edison is asking New Yorkers to do what they can to cut back on their electricity usage, as the utility continues to grapple with scattered outages. Brooklyn and Queens are the most affected, with about 175 customers without power.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg is also urging electrical conservation.

BLOOMBERG: If you could turn out lights wherever possible, if you could take 15 percent of your elevators our of service, that's still plenty of service. Don't run air conditioners in a room when you're not there. We can get through this fine.

REPORTER: The mayor says the grid is holding up "reasonably well." But teachers say the city's classrooms are not.

Their union, the UFT, says the city hasn't protected teachers and students from "heat-related health hazards," and it's filed a complaint with the state Labor Department. Unlike some suburban schools, city schools were not dismissed early.

Bloomberg says students need more time getting instruction, not less. He says he remembers his school making do with fans when he was a boy in Boston.