Accelerate the energy transition by adopting public power
New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act mandates that the state get 70% of its electricity from renewables by 2030, and 100% of it from carbon-free sources by 2040. Those deadlines are around the corner, and we’re nowhere near meeting them. To get there, we’ll need a lot of concerted action, including passing the LIPA Public Power Act in this legislative session.
By getting rid of outsourced third-party management by PSEG Long Island and adopting a full public power model, Long Island’s power grid could be managed more effectively, improving service, eliminating waste, saving up to $75 million a year and lowering electric bills.
This is not just a Long Island issue. Establishing public power for the Long Island Power Authority would help make other utilities more accountable to ratepayers. It would serve as a model for other places in New York that are campaigning to establish public power utilities in their service areas, such as the push to replace RG&E in Monroe County.
The LIPA Public Power Act would also support a massive buildout of publicly owned renewables across the state to meet CLCPA goals, which the statewide Public Power NY Coalition is urging Gov. Kathy Hochul to support. Long Island holds the key, because it would be a giant extension cord from offshore wind to the rest of the state. But first we need to pass the LIPA Public Power Act to get offshore wind and other renewables built and connected.
Renewables development in New York has been glacially slow. Of the renewable capacity for which the state has awarded contracts since 2015, only about 3% is operational today. This is partly because privately run utilities have often slow-walked renewables, clinging to dirty fossil fuel plants, rigging rates to make rooftop solar economically unattractive, opposing transmission upgrades needed for clean energy, and lobbying to make ratepayers bear the costs of their work to undermine renewables.
For example, PSEG tried to delay LIPA’S planned renewable energy projects for offshore wind and transmissions upgrades. It wastes money on
exorbitant executive pay and lobbying that could and should be going into building renewables. It distributes profits to its shareholders that ought to be reinvested into upgrading the utility for clean energy.
And yet PSEG is currently in charge of the Integrated Resource Plan, LIPA’S roadmap for CLCPA compliance, which lays out renewables and transmission upgrades, ensuring just transition and adequate power. But unsurprisingly, PSEG has failed to build public support for them on Long Island, so key projects like wind power and battery storage are stalled.
Once the Legislature passes the LIPA Public Power Act and LIPA adopts the full public power model, that can change. LIPA trustees – with fiduciary responsibility to serve Long Island’s ratepayers and communities, not PSEG’S shareholders – will manage the utility. A community stakeholder board of ratepayers from diverse backgrounds across Long Island would have voting representatives on the LIPA board. Decisions about renewables and how to adapt the grid to a changing climate would come under local control. Instead of shareholders’ pockets, profits would get put into building and connecting renewables that communities welcome.
Transitioning to clean energy requires shifting the private utility management model. To break the logjam and ramp up renewables fast, we need to adopt public power. Then Long Island can lead New York on climate, and New York can lead the nation.