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Cuomo On Sandy Fallout: "They Failed. The Utility Companies Failed"

Garth Johnston

Published Nov 8, 2012

Modified Nov 8, 2012

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Garth Johnston

Published Nov 8, 2012

Modified Nov 8, 2012

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Governor Andrew Cuomo gave his latest update on Hurricane Sandy relief efforts and yesterday's nor'easter this morning, and he spared no words in describing his disappointment with local utilities: "They failed," Cuomo said during a blistering attack of local utilities. "They failed. The utility companies failed."

As far as last night's storm, it was a doozy for the region. This morning there were 108,000 without power in Nassau County, 79,000 in Suffolk, 35,000 in Westchester and another 23,000 in Queens. Cuomo pointed out that things were improving since Sandy but "90 percent who have power is not a victory, ten percent who don't have power is a defeat."

Cuomo went on to say that he'll keep pushing the utilities until everyone has power, and later made it quite clear that he is not happy with the way the power has returned since the storm. "I believe they were unprepared. I believe the system is archaic and obsolete in many ways," he said before flat out threatening to restructure LIPA and National Grid (and Con Ed) right out of existence when the Sandy cleanup is all over and "we've had a sober look at cold facts" of "one of the last monopolies":

"No, I don't believe what they did was adequate, I don't believe what they did was right. Part it was system design and part of it was performance. And part of it is the fact that these utilities are a monopoly.

You know how people criticize government? And they say it is big and it is bureaucratic and it is unaccountable? Government is actually accountable. At least to this extent: you can fire the person who runs it. Unhappy with the state government? Fire me? Unhappy with the city government? Fire the mayor. You are unhappy with the utility company? Who do you fire?

By the way who is the utility company? Who runs it? Who owns it? What is it? Where do you get them? They are this nameless, faceless bureaucracy that is a monopoly that operates with very little incentives or sanction. The costs are set by the State but are a function of what they spend. So I think this is a system that we are going to have to look at for a ground up redesign.

And that wasn't all! "They failed," he went on to repeat multiple times of the power companies management. "They ran out of poles, believe it or not. They ran out of poles! Can you believe they ran out of poles? And now we have utility companies competing for poles!"

Of course it wasn't just power that Cuomo was talking today. He also announced the full reopening of the Queens-Midtown tunnel, discussed the damage to Long Island last night, gas shortages and panics (they're working on it, it is a regional problem), the $50 billion and counting the last two weeks have cost the region and FEMA reimbursement. On that last point he was very clear:

FEMA has to pay 100 percent of the damages. If they think anyone in this state can pay anymore for this storm they are wrong. 100 percent reimbursement is what we deserve and what I'm going to fight for. We pay a lot of taxes to Washington, this is a very important state nationally and I want them to do what is right for our tax payers.

Tagged

governor cuomo

Cuomo

hurricane sandy

national grid

power

utilities

frankenstorm

con ed

LIPA

Garth Johnston

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