The Long Island Power Authority – LIPA - was established in 1986 to replace the the failed private Long Island Lighting Company. LIPA is nominally a public utility, but it has always contracted out its operations to third parties.
In 2014 LIPA hired a branch of PSEG - Public Service Electric and Gas, a New Jersey private utility – to operate the Long Island utility grid.
Recently, widespread power outages during Tropical Storm Isaias left hundreds of thousands of ratepayers without power. The debacle led to a call for a re-organization of the Long Island utility.
New York Assemblyman Fred Thiele represents the first district on eastern Long Island. He’s has long been vocal in his support of establishing a new fully public utility to operate the Long Island grid. To that end, he sponsored several bills that were enacted in the previous legislative session, including one establishing a Legislative commission on the future of the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA), which he chairs.
Its goal, according to the commission’s website, is “to develop and present to the legislature an action plan for implementing a true public power model for residents of Long Island and the Rockaways. This means LIPA would directly provide electric service to the more than three million residents and thousands of businesses in its service area without contracting out that responsibility to an investor-owned, for-profit utility.”
The bipartisan commission is currently holding public hearings and has formed an advisory committee of resident stakeholders. It hopes to be ready to transition LIPA to a true public utility when the current contract with PSEG-LI is up in 2025. Reimagine LIPA, a coalition of grassroots groups, is supporting that transition.
Host Francesca Rheannon talked with Mr. Thiele last
week.
Here is more information about Reimagine LIPA
Newsday: Pros and Cons of LIPA becoming a fully public utility
Commission must take a fair look at the future of LIPA
