LIPA needs change, but what kind?

Former KeySpan chief executive Bob Catell makes a weak case for privatizing the Long Island Power Authority ["Time to switch it up?" Opinion, May 15].

During the years in which I served as an associate member and energy analyst for the Sustainable Energy Alliance, an environmental group, I had the experience of auditing Nassau County's energy bills, attending LIPA board meetings (anyone can attend), and cowriting a solar energy initiative in the alliance's draft proposal to LIPA. I did this as an unpaid volunteer.

Catell refers to "nearly $7 billion in debt flowing in part from the failed Shoreham nuclear plant." The Shoreham debt is by far LIPA's biggest financial problem. How would privatizing help that?

He admits that with municipal ownership, "capital is less expensive and there are no shareholder returns to pay." He later suggests that "those advantages can be exceeded by efficiency gains and other creative initiatives," but he doesn't mention any.

Might a private company or corporation in control of a monopolistic business with a mandate to maximize profits for its shareholders reduce our service?

Steve Sloane, Glen Cove
 

The opinion article by Bob Catell is right on point when he says that Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo can act to straighten out LIPA. Unfortunately, either Catell failed to mention, or forgot, many of the causes of how we all got into this proverbial hornet's nest.

LIPA was created in 1998 to provide lower-cost electric power for the Island and to rid the consumers of a private, for-profit company. State leaders approved a plan to create a public authority. The authority would be governed with bylaws and a (confusing at best) set of state price controls called tariffs.

A key element to control the monarchic trustees was to make them directly accountable to the consumers by having them voted in by Long Islanders. Somehow that was changed, and since 1998, all trustees have been appointed by the governor and the Senate and Assembly majority leaders. Until recently, those leaders have all come from either upstate or New York City.

These circumstances are where Catell misses the mark. We can no longer allow for any additional appointed trustees, and must go back to the intent of the original legislation and have the management of LIPA directly accountable to the public, by making them elected officials. We Long Islanders have seen the failure of the current management system and desperately need to chart our own course if we are to succeed and continue as an economic engine of the Empire State.

Phil Healey, Massapequa

Editor's note: The writer is president of the Biltmore Shores Civic Association.