Officials Want Military to Take Over Power Restoration on Long Island

[FrodosPet]

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Sandy-LIPA-Outages-Power-Long-Island-Defense-Military-178115341.html

Two congressmen from Long Island are asking the White House to send federal employees to Long Island to take the lead role in restoring power to a region where tens of thousands of people remain in the dark 12 days after Superstorm Sandy.

U.S. Reps. Peter King and Steve Israel said they were sending a letter Friday requesting that personnel from the Army Corps of Engineers and Energy Department assume work of the Long Island Power Authority, whose work after the storm the congressmen called "abysmal." They echoed the criticism expressed earlier by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

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As of Friday evening, 150,000 homes and businesses on Long Island were without power. LIPA has said as many as 60,000 of those customers were severely damaged by flooding and would require extensive repairs before workers can begin to restore power. Some who had electricity restored in the days following Sandy lost power again after a nor'easter struck Wednesday night.

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Newsday reported Friday that LIPA was warned as long ago as 2006 that it was not prepared to handle a major storm, that it badly needed to replace outdated technology and did not keep up with critical maintenance.

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If they were a federally owned utility, backed by higher commercial customer rates along with federal subsidies and grants, instead of squeezing residential customers for profit, perhaps they could have a modern infrastructure and a large, well trained force of union line workers and real time notification of power outages.

[FrodosPet]

1. OK I suppose I should have done some research first

Apparently, the Long Island Power Authority IS a state owned utility, not a private corporation. So the politicians need to get busy and pass laws and funding bills to literally get them into the 21st Century instead of using 25 year old monitoring equipment. You would think at the rapid pace of growth in technology that their control system should be replaced every 7 years or so.

[PoliticAverse]

2. "instead of squeezing residential customers for profit" LIPA is a nonprofit Government owned utility

The Long Island Power Authority is...

A non-profit municipal electric provider, owns the retail electric transmission and distribution system (T&D) on Long Island and provides electric service to more than 1.1 million customers in Nassau and Suffolk counties and the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens. LIPA is the 2nd largest municipal electric utility in the nation in terms of electric revenue, 3rd largest in terms of customers served, and the 7th largest in terms of electricity delivered.

(From: http://www.lipower.org/company/ )

[Generic Other]

3. Wouldn't be the first time the military stepped in

In 1929, a drought in the Pacific Northwest crippled electricity production in the region, which was heavily reliant on hydroelectric power. The power shortage became so severe that USS Lexington was ordered to port in Tacoma, Washington and supply electricity to the city. For 30 days the aircraft carrier produced a quarter of Tacoma’s electricity. After that time rains restored the regions power production enough for Lexington to return to her regular duties...USS Lexington’s mission in Tacoma was a profound success. Moreover, her time as a power plant epitomizes the often overlooked civil assistance militaries historically provide to the countries they serve.

http://conflicthealth.com/when-uss-lexington-powered-a-city/

[Ikonoklast]

4. Uhhhh, and do what, exactly? You know that they would have to hire the very same contractors

that are currently beating their brains out trying to get power restored.

Is the federal government supposed to magically make more crews appear out of thin air?

Are they supposed to hook power up to buildings and homes that haven't been inspected yet, to see if they are even safe to have electrical power restored?

Don't they understand theat the Corps uses civilian contractors on large projects, as does the DoE?

[FrodosPet]

5. If all the nation's power infrastructure were federally owned

The people in charge would be able to quickly and easily move resources to where they are needed without a lot of obstruction.

Plus, every utility worker would be an employee of the U.S. Department of Energy and would receive union representation and a full suite of benefits, so the jobs could attract the brightest and best.