Even as LIPA and PSEG move ahead with a new contract, LIPA’s top official Thursday said the utility remains “open” to the notion of becoming a fully public utility in the future if a proposed legislative commission recommends it.
“We remain open to the desires of the legislature to do it a different way,” LIPA chief Tom Falcone told trustees at a board meeting Thursday, after a ratepayer during the session requested the utility “steer away from projects with PSEG and cut our losses.”
LIPA’s new contract with PSEG, pending approval by the State Comptroller, promises new accountability and better performance, and outgoing PSEG Long Island president Dan Eichhorn said during the meeting that the company was off to a good start. “We have good systems in place, we have good processes to track these metrics, and so far in the first six weeks of the year [we have] good performance and good delivery on those metrics.”
But Falcone said if full municipalization is something lawmakers and the governor request, “then we will do it.” He said LIPA would continually check PSEG’s progress and “see how we’re doing,” and change course if lawmakers and its board support it. Under the municipalization plan, LIPA would take charge of day-to-day management of systems, employees and equipment, which could save upward of $80 million a year.
Ratepayer activist Fred Harrison of Merrick urged LIPA to start now by preparing a “detailed municipalization feasibility study” to get ready for the transition. Falcone said it could be done quickly in the future. “It’s not rocket science,” he said.
Assemb. Fred Thiele (I-Sag Harbor) has introduced a bill that would establish a commission to study a fully public LIPA, with the idea of putting it in place by the time PSEG’s contract expires in 2025.
Thiele on Thursday said he’s working with state Sen. Jim Gaughran (D-Northport) and there is a “very good chance that this could be included in the State Budget” in coming weeks.
He would request a $2 million appropriation in the budget for the commission to do its work. The request to state legislative leaders will go out Friday, Thiele said.
“Most of our majority colleagues in the LIPA service area have already co-signed the [request] letter,” he said, adding he has met with members of the executive branch on the request and “discussions thus far have been encouraging.”
A spokesman for Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the plan.
