Sky High Electric Rates

By Scott Feldman

Long Island's Republican Assembly delegation recently held a public hearing on the future of the Long Island Power Authority. Should it remain a state authority? Or go private? What about the Board of Trustees? Should they be appointed by the Governor and Legislative Leaders or elected by ratepayers? Or some other combination? But the most pressing issue right now ---those sky high electric bills. Piccolo Restaurant in Bellmore is paying about a 6 thousand dollar monthly LIPA bill. Residential customers could easily be paying 300 to 400 dollars per month. Why, asked lawmakers, did LIPA have to raise rates even when oil prices have been coming down. LIPA CEO Kevin Law's short answer --rising costs for the utility. That includes higher property taxes, higher interest rates on its debt, even Law claims, new environmental laws that put new regulatory requirements on the power plants. Law tells me there could be relief for ratepayers if LIPA got a chunk of the federal economic stimulus package. The authority would use that money for renewable energy projects, including wind, solar, smart meters. And the money could also go towards paying down a multi billion dollar debt on the defunct Shoreham nuclear plant. As Law put it, " I will have my hand out for as much money as we can get." In the meantime, one Long Islander who is living on social security and a small pension from his job at the NYC library had a message for LAW and LIPA, "lower these rates, otherwise, we are in big trouble, all of us. "

Comments

[John]

I want to understand where Law is coming from. I really do. He doesn't seem like a mustache-twirling villain from a silent movie. However, he's certainly acting the part.

Maybe, rather than just sticking the customer at every opportunity (or taxpayer, since LIPA is a state agency, let's remember--we're paying taxes to be charged high rates), it's time to rethink things.

I mean, maybe Shorham can be put to some use. Dare I say it? With the advances in nuclear power and waste recycling in the last two decades, maybe it's time to fire it up. Then LIPA can quit whining about eating the costs (which they're not; we are) and actually produce cheap power.

Or maybe LIPA doesn't need so many executives, when none of them are able to fix anything.

When you make almost half a million dollars per year in salary as Law does, you should darn well have better solutions to problems than "raise prices." Unless he'd like to see everybody on the Island lose service and stop paying him, of course, but that gets back into mustache-twirling territory.