Thiele trashes PSEG delivery charge hike

Just a week after criticizing PSEG for failing Long Islander, Assemblyman Fred Thiele Jr. (I-Sag Harbor) blasted the utility company’s plans to increase delivery charges by nearly 4 percent for the next three years.

The result would increase the company’s revenue by $72 million per year from 2016 through 2018, while customers would see an average 2 percent increase in their bills. PSEG bills are divided into two parts — a delivery charge and a fuel supply charge, each representing about 50 percent of the overall cost.

Between September and December, the fuel supply charge rose 81 percent, “far above the actual cost of fuel,” Mr. Thiele said. Now the delivery charge increase of 3.8 percent the company is seeking would add to that. “The only thing PSEG is missing is a gun and a mask,” the legislator said.

Long Island Power Authority increased the delivery charge only twice during a 16-year period and both times, the amount was less than 2 percent, Mr. Thiele said, adding, “This is the largest increase in the delivery charge in the history of LIPA.

When the LIPA Reform Act was signed and a three-year rate freeze was promised, we were told, ‘You have to operate the utility better. LIPA’s answer to everything is more money. We don’t have more money. You can’t keep putting your hand in the pocket of the ratepayers.

In the 13 months PSEG has operated Long Island’s utility system for LIPA, it has tapped ratepayers for more money.

Businesses, families and government are working to reduce costs and operate more efficiently, but “PSEG has reached its hand in our pockets at every opportunity,” Mr. Thiele said. “Long Island already has among the highest utility rates in the nation
[and] we can’t afford to send more of our money to Newark, New Jersey for electricity.”