Brodsky makes pledge to probe electricity pricing

A Democratic candidate for New York attorney general said Monday he would crack down on the way electricity is bought and sold in the state if elected.

Assemb. Richard Brodsky (D-Westchester) said changes he is seeking in wholesale electricity pricing would save New York consumers and businesses more than $2 billion annually.

Brodsky announced his plan to investigate electricity pricing at City Hall in Manhattan. He said New York's electricity rates are the fourth-highest in the country.

Brodsky said the current system is a "price-fixing scheme" run by the New York Independent System Operator, a not-for-profit group that sets what is called the market clearing-price.

The ISO, established by the energy industry, oversees the pricing and selling of electricity through daily auctions.

Brodsky - who has long railed against electricity pricing - said the ISO requires utilities to pay the highest daily prices available rather than the lowest ones.

"This is price-fixing, pure and simple, and its victims are the average people of the state of New York and businesses that rely on electricity," Brodsky said.

Thomas Rumsey, a spokesman for the ISO, defended the pricing system in a written statement, saying the cost of wholesale electric energy in New York is more than $2 billion less annually than when the ISO was formed 10 years ago.

"The uniform clearing price auction design has been shown time and again to produce the lowest total electricity costs to consumers," Rumsey said. "Mr. Brodsky's position illustrates the need for continued outreach to our elected officials so they can better understand and appreciate the immense value competitive energy markets have and continue to provide."

Vanessa Baird-Streeter, a spokeswoman for the Long Island Power Authority, had no comment.

Brodsky, chairman of the Assembly's Committee on Corporations, Authorities, and Commissions, will face four other Democrats in a Sept. 14 primary: Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice, former federal prosecutor Sean Coffey of Westchester, former state insurance commissioner Eric Dinallo of Manhattan, and state Sen. Eric Schneiderman of Manhattan.