When Governor Cuomo delivers his State of the State message on Wednesday, it will include proposals for greater oversight of state’s electric utilities.
An investigatory panel created by Cuomo in the aftermath o f Superstorm Sandy recommends that the state’s Public Service Commission , or PSC, be given more powers to regulate electric utilities and to impose higher monetary fines. The governor agrees, and says it has to be “fundamentally changed”.
“I don’t believe the PSC is really a regulator, and I don’t believe these utility companies are regulated entities,” said Cuomo. “We say that, but that’s not really the way the relationship is defined.”
Cuomo says he wants the state to have the power to terminate contracts with utility companies if they fail to perform.
And the governor says the Long Island Power Authority, which was created by his father, former Governor Mario Cuomo, “never made sense operationally” and should be privatized. He says he’ll next focus on upstate New York utilities.