Letter: Let LIPA customers buy elsewhere
Esther Mastey shows a bill in which LIPA has charged her as a commercial customer at her Long Beach home Wednesday. (January 25, 2012) Photo by Barry Sloan Credit: Photo by Barry Sloan
I read with interest that the State Assembly passed a bill called the Long Island Power Authority Oversight and Accountability Act, and that the act is making its way to a vote in the State Senate ["LIPA oversight bill nears vote," News, Jan. 30]. The bill would authorize the state Public Service Commission to audit the utility's rates and operations.
In what I consider to be the most under-reported story on Long Island, I'd like to know why LIPA is the only utility in the region that doesn't allow customers to buy power through an energy service company (ESCO), where they can usually get an 8 percent to 15 percent discount on their bills.
Utilities in Connecticut, New Jersey, the five boroughs of New York and all of upstate offer their customers this cost-effective measure. Inexplicably, LIPA continues with this monopolistic practice even as National Grid offers Long Island customers the ESCO option on natural gas.
The first order of business should be to address this scandalous no-ESCO policy, which does nothing but enrich LIPA and drive up the costs of living and doing business on Long Island.
Eugene R. Dunn, Medford
