On Tuesday, participants of a virtual forum called on LIPA to terminate its contract with PSEG and fully become a fully public power company, Mark Harrington reported.
Learn more about the hearing below.
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"PSEG can't fix the problem because PSEG is the problem," said Nicolas Shearman, who called on LIPA to terminate the PSEG contract and move forward as a fully public utility. He called the public-private model that LIPA has operated under since 1998 "unreliable, unaccountable and more expensive."
LIPA chief Tom Falcone kicked off the session by reminding customers that PSEG's "sub-par" performance during Tropical Storm Isaias may have been a catalyst for the current review, but that deeper "management failures" at PSEG were discovered after the storm that led LIPA to make longer-term moves to improve the utility.
"It's time for a course correction," Falcone said. He promised ratepayers "better results in the future."
Ratepayers by a large majority favored the notion of a fully public power utility, one that would save upward of $80 million a year in fees paid to PSEG, while becoming "democratic," more nimble in moving toward clean energy and greater customer involvement.
"We need to revamp the entire structure" of the utility, said Laura McKellar of Greenlawn, one that gives communities "a representative seat at the table."
"We do not want another corporation that is ultimately beholden to another group of stock holders," McKellar said.
Falcone noted LIPA has already started the process of weighing potential new service providers by issuing a request for information for new service providers. He said the company has not yet negotiated a suitable contract with PSEG that he felt he could share with ratepayers.
Lisa Tyson, executive director of the Long Island Progressive Coalition, noting that storms are getting worse and "trust in LIPA's public-private partnerships is plummeting," called for "serious structural change now," with a fully public power utility that partners with universities and local organizations to help guide the utility.
It wasn't just PSEG's failure in the storm that irked ratepayers. Heather Clark of Port Washington recounted how PSEG in 2014 "defaced our town" with 80-foot utility poles "without any public input or warning," while "defacing countless trees" with "senseless trimming" for storms. She called for the fully public model to give ratepayers more input into such decisions.
Several of the speakers urged LIPA to forgo the long review process that would be required to hire a new service provider, with several suggesting that a likely bidder like Con Edison would not be an improvement.”