Lawmakers and activists slam LIPA for new deal with PSEG

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Long Island lawmakers and energy activists pick up a chapter of LIPA’s criticisms of PSEG over the past 10 months and light it up itself after the authority said on Sunday it had reached a agreement to continue with the PSEG after months of public reflection on alternatives.

One lawmaker called the deal “another deception” while another called it “threatening” as summer storms loom. An activist said the news was making her “sick” and would lead to a new push for legislation to make LIPA the public good it was meant to be.

Last year, LIPA sued, publicly eviscerated and even sent a letter in an attempt to terminate the PSEG contract. But he turned heads on Sunday when he announced his decision to accept a new and improved PSEG contract. The deal, if approved, would grant LIPA virtually all of its demands for system repair, management personnel, Long Island autonomy and PSEG liability following PSEG failures during from tropical storm Isaias.

The proposed deal, which is still under development and could be voted on by LIPA trustees in August, would also put more than $ 78 million in PSEG’s annual management fees “at risk” by cutting its salary by over $ 40 million for non-performance. metric. It also eliminates an effectively automatic renewal of the contract for eight years after its end in 2025.

But all this was not enough to quell long-standing critics of LIPA, who suspected Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who controls LIPA’s board of directors, was behind the hastily announced deal. It was the Cuomos administration that awarded the PSEG a larger contract in 2012 as part of its LIPA reform law. PSEG took over management of the Long Island grid from National Grid in 2014.

“The apparent manipulation of this problem by an invisible puppet master is alienating, it turns people off,” Assemb said. Steve Englebright (D-Setauket), of the governor’s unconfirmed involvement in facilitating the deal.

Now, Englebright said, he will work with other Long Island lawmakers to hold a public session to shed light on how this deal came about and get the fully public option back on track.

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In the shorter term, Englebright said Long Island’s “risk index” and storm responsiveness remain high due to “aggressive storm events which are now the norm.” LIPA, as late as last week, expressed concerns about PSEG’s ability to respond to storms and criticized its use of an outdated computer system to help with outage management.

“It’s worrying,” Englebright said. “I think the public is still in danger.”

LIPA and Cuomo’s office did not immediately provide a comment in response to criticism of the deal.

PSEG President and Chief Operating Officer Dan Eichhorn said in a statement that the company was “pleased that LIPA has made the best choice for our customers in retaining us as a service provider.”

Critics of the deal were quick to oppose it. Assemb. Fred Thiele (I-Sag Harbor) released a statement Monday criticizing the closed-door negotiations that resulted in the LIPA-PSEG deal, calling it “another betrayal of LIPA taxpayers,” and urging the board of directors to LIPA to reject it in favor of the Public Power.

State Senator Jim Gaughran (D-) raised questions about the timing of the PSEG deal just after the 2021 legislative session ended. He and other lawmakers had been working on bills to amend LIPA to include much more accountability and oversight. And while Gaughan secured two LIPA bills through the state legislature, a broader reform planned for this session has been delayed.

“We were going to pass a law to completely reform LIPA and make it more transparent, provide more oversight and deal with the PSEG issue, but they [LIPA officials] kept saying they were also working on a proposal, “and pushing for broader reform, Gaughran said. Then,” they dropped that [PSEG deal] when the legislature was out of session. I think they deceived the legislature. “

Gaughran said he is “not giving up” on broader reform, with plans to talk to other lawmakers about possible hearings and plans for comprehensive reform, and possible changes in leadership at LIPA when of the next session in January.

Lisa Tyson, executive director of the Long Island Progressive Coalition, who had been a strong advocate for making LIPA a full-fledged public service, said she was “sick” of the news, but said it confirmed the findings. hints by some that a reformed deal with the PSEG is what the governor ultimately wanted from the start. “I just got there so fast it was terrifying,” she said.

From now on, his coalition and his long list of supporters will look to the lawmaker to pursue the fully public option.

“This is going to turn into a legislative battle,” she said. “We will ask the legislator to force municipalization. We have always thought that this would go to the legislation.”

Brookhaven Town supervisor Edward Romaine said LIPA’s bitter criticism of PSEG over the past 10 months has been instructive for him in his dealings with LIPA going forward. “Obviously, when LIPA talks about PSEG, we now know absolutely not to hold our breath because that’s all” not true, he said.

“I am disappointed that the [fully public option] didn’t get the serious attention it deserved, ”he said. “Clearly, the public option was widely supported on Long Island, and it looked like LIPA and its board of directors were going to give it a chance. This now appears not to be the case. “

LIPA Acting President Mark Fischl said he too had supported a fully municipal LIPA, but said that in the absence of it immediately, the new contract “I really think we are brings much closer to a municipal public service “.

“Although I don’t like it, the [proposed contract] gives us the opportunity to keep our feet on the fire and municipalize if they are not performing, ”said Fischl.

Mark Harrington, Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.

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