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Thiele wants more investment in modern, affordable energy

REPORTER FILE PHOTO Assemblyman Fred Thiele Jr. wants the state to invest in more modern, efficient and less costly energy to combat rising electric prices.
REPORTER FILE PHOTO Assemblyman Fred Thiele Jr. wants the state to invest in more modern, efficient and less costly energy to combat rising electric prices.

Assemblyman Fred Thiele Jr. (I-Sag Harbor) is calling for modernization of Long Island’s energy supply to produce more affordable electricity.His call comes in the wake of PSEG-LI’s announcement that customers’ rates would be rising in March. Long Island ratepayers are already hit with the highest electric costs in the nation.

With ratepayers bearing the costs to import expensive power from out-of-state plants, Governor Andrew Cuomo “must act in support of efforts to reform our energy infrastructure,” Mr. Thiele said.

On a recent visit to Long Island, the governor “mentioned several worthwhile and forward-thinking projects” to help improve the regional economy. He referred to six storms in recent years that have battered Long Island and were cited as the types of events that in the past only happened once in every 100 years.

Those are what drove Governor Cuomo to restructure the Long Island Poswer Authority and have PSEG-LI run the operation. But the change hasn’t resulted in “meaningful action to curb LIPA’s growing debt and improve Long Island’s electric generation fleet” to support projects that would generate less expansive and cleaner energy, Mr. Thiele said.

“Existing power plants are old, inefficient and vulnerable to storm surge,” the legislator said.

Investments in modern sources of energy would not only lower ratepayers’ costs, but create hundreds of good paying jobs, stimulate significant private investment and boost tax revenues for local communities, he said.

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