The proposed Cuomo bill on LIPA will without question increase electric rates and no absolute rate freeze is possible for any length of time. In fact if the IRS does not approve the proposed structure, rates could increase astronomically.
Many of the benefits offered in the bill could be applied to LIPA as it now exists while pursuing a transition to PSEG as its major contractor by January, 2014. There is no emergency since progress is being made in the transition and no urgency in expanding PSEG’s scope exists.
For this reason the Governor’s bill should not be rushed through the State Legislature in the last few weeks of the session. The monumental financial impact of the proposal on Long Island is too great not to take a deep breath and step back to fully review all of its implications, as well as alternative courses of action.
Acting in haste in an artificially created atmosphere of impending doom, would be a serious mistake and produce something more flawed than the original LIPA concept. There is more than enough time to examine the full consequences of the Governor’s proposal in the next session of the Legislature. The decisions to be made are just too critical not to make every effort to get it right.
