Thiele’s LIPA reform bills sail through legislature

Five bills sponsored by Assemblyman Fred Thiele aimed at increasing transparency, accountability and oversight of the Long Island Power Authority and its contractor PSEG-LI have passed both chambers of the state legislature.

Two of the laws directly relate to transparency.

One bill would make public the executive compensation of utility companies and providers, such as PSEG-LI. Since LIPA is a public authority, its executive compensation is already subject to public review. But this information is not accessible for its contractors, including PSEG-LI. During a joint public hearing after tropical storm Isais in 2020, PSEG-LI declined to disclose their executive salaries to the legislature.

The bill would require annual statements to be filed with the State Department of Public Service. It would also require the companies to file retroactive statements for the six years prior to the effective date of the new law.

“Ratepayers finance utility companies and it is only fair for them to know how their money is being spent, including how much is being used to compensate the utility’s executives,” Thiele said in a press release.

The compensation disclosure requirement would apply to electric and gas utilities as well as water-works corporations or service providers with a gross annual operating revenue of more than $1 million.

A second bill would require LIPA to submit lobbying and advertising reports to the state legislature for analysis. Questions have arisen as to whether all lobbying activities of the authority have been properly accounted for and reported, Thiele said. The ratepayers who fund LIPA deserve to have a clear picture of exactly how and why funding is expended.

Both transparency bills passed the assembly and senate by wide margins. State Senator Anthony Palumbo and Assemblywoman Jodi Giglio both voted yes.

A third bill requires PSEG-LI to provide LIPA with annual stress tests of their systems, including the outage management and communication systems that caused the prolonged outage of over 400,000 customers on Long Island. This also passed both chambers by wide margins, and both Palumbo and Giglio voted yes.

“As was the case last year with Tropical Storm Isaias, we have seen time and time again the breakdown in communication and the failure of the utility [PSEG-LI] to function as it should and supply all Long Islanders with power,” said Thiele, who sponsored the bills in the assembly. “We cannot allow PSEG-LI to continue putting Long Island residents through this nightmare.”

Another bill, amends the State Public Service Law to allow municipalities in LIPA’s service territory to pool their resources together to purchase electricity from an alternative provider. This would allow easier access to green – and often cheaper – energy options, Thiele said. This bill passed both chambers unanimously.

The Public Service Commission in 2016 authorized community choice aggregation programs but the PSC order did not “fully account for the complexities of LIPA’s service territory and rate structure,” Thiele said.

“The Towns of Southampton, East Hampton, Brookhaven, and Hempstead have led the way by passing the local law necessary to authorize a CCA program within their municipalities,” Thiele said. “These municipalities should be allowed to proceed.”

A fifth bill enables LIPA to restructure its debt with a lower interest rate. Thiele said the restructuring would save ratepayers over $600 million over 20 years and allow LIPA to upgrades and harden its infrastructure to protect it from rising flood levels, increased wind speeds, and unpredictable storms.mThe money saved would allow the company to invest more into improvements for their electrical infrastructure.

The bill passed the assembly unanimously. The vote was 58-5 in the senate. Palumbo cast one of the five no votes

“While enhancing and hardening the infrastructure of the power grid is a laudable goal, I could not support authorizing LIPA to borrow billions more and pile additional debt service on the backs of Long Island ratepayers,” Palumbo said this morning. “I have little confidence in the current LIPA-PSEG partnership after the abysmal response to hurricane Isaias. Those failures should not be an excuse to authorize more bonding,” he said.

Editor’s note: This story has been amended after it was first published to add a comment from State Senator Anthony Palumbo in response to an earlier inquiry.