Green Education and Legal Funds Criticize Governor Paterson to Failing Appoint Consumer and Renewable Energy Advocates to Public Service Commission

Calls on Senate to Reject Nominees

The Green Education and Legal Fund said today that Governor Paterson should have appointed two consumer advocates to the two open seats on the state's Public Service Commission, a powerful body that help regulate utilities in New York State. Paterson recently re-appointed two current members, including a former Republican assemblymember. The appointments are subject to Senate Confirmation. The Greens urged the Senate to reject them.

"New Yorkers voted for Spitzer-Paterson on the promise on change. But since day one, many of the anti-consumer, anti-environmental, pro-corporate patronage appointments by former Governor Pataki have remained in key positions at every level of state government, continuing their efforts to promote special interests. The Public Service COmmission is the latest opportunity for Governor Paterson to put some visionary leaders into key positions," said Dr. Steve Breyman of GELF

The Greens suggested that a strong consumer representative such as Gerald Norlander of the Public Utility Law Project or Blair Horner of NYPIRG should have been appointed by Paterson to the PSC, along with a progressive energy economist such as Charles Komonaff or someone from the Pace Energy Project. The Green Party also called upon the State Senate to exercise its constitutional responsibility to review the proposed appointments to the PSC to make sure that strong consumer and renewable energy members were appointed.

The Greens said they were also disappointed by the recent appointment of former Cuomo energy / environmental advisor Frank Murray to head the New York State Energy Resource and Development Authority. THe Greens had tangled with Murray over the fight to get New York to stop supporting the Hydro Quebec project in James Bay, famously setting up a meeting between Murray and a six foot beaver (former Green Party Assembly candidate Pete Looker) to discuss the project. New York eventually agreed to the Green position and canceled it contract, helping to derail the project and saving the largest remaining wilderness in North America.

"The world faces a climate change crisis. We need leaders at the state level that will aggressively implement an agenda to implement renewable energy, energy conservation and enery efficiency, promoting decentralized and clean energy sources. We have heard some nice speeches from Governor Paterson recently but the people he has in charge of his energy programs don't get it, they're slow turtles that promote the status quo and the energy industry. NYSERDA in particular needs someone to shake the mothballs out, its performance has been woeful," added Breyman.

The Greens said that the Paterson administration had to stop cozying up to clean coal and nuclear power and instead should embrace the proposal to energy retrofit up to one million homes with the next few years, helping to reduce the state's carbon footprint, lower energy bills for consumers and create up to 30,000 new green jobs.

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Acampora to PSC: Huh? Why would Paterson do that?

One of the biggest deals the state Public Service Commission has overseen on LI in the last few years was the takeover of KeySpan by National Grid.

Pat Acampora (left), the Suffolk Republican operative and former assemblywoman who won a patronage appointment to the PSC from George Pataki, was chairwoman at the time. She earned considerable criticism for a series of private personal and telephone contacts with National Grid lobbyists and executives -- including getting a ride from Albany to a hearing in Riverhead with a Natinal Grid exec who she described as a friend of many years. Of course, she ended up voting to approve the deal.

So last night, Gov. Paterson decided to reappoint Acampora to the PSC with a press release that said she "demonstrated her commitment to consumer rights, working to hold public meetings and ensure a transparent discourse during the Commission’s proceedings."

Is that some kind of joke? How is a commissioner who has private meetings with lobbyists seeking her approval showing her commitment to "transparent discourse"??? Our Democratic governor wants regulators who are tight with the industries they regulate, and conduct their business in private chats rather than public hearings?

That's a small illustration of why the appointment is puzzling. As a state Senator in 2006, Paterson complained that George Pataki was trying to exercise control over the PSC "from the grave" with a series of late-term appointments. Then, because of the fortuitous resignation of one of Pataki's appointees last year, Paterson as governor had the unexpected opportunity to take control of the five-member commission this year.

Instead, by reappointing Acampora, he left a nominal majority of three commissioners originally appointed by Pataki in place at least until 2012 to continue to carry out a Republican, deregulatory agenda. By law, Paterson couldn't have appointed a Democrat to the "bipartisan" commission -- but he could have appointed, for example, a member of the closely allied Working Families Party.

Wouldn't that have been a more natural step for a Democratic governor -- a progressive regulation-minded appointment of his own, instead of a Pataki remnant?

On the other hand, maybe it isn't so puzzling. Paterson also appointed Jim LaRocca, a former Keyspan board member, in December, and yesterday along with Acampora reappointed chairman Garry Brown (right), a former power industry official who had originally been blessed by Joe Bruno before he was named by Eliot Spitzer. Bruno blocked Spitzer's first choice, but Malcolm Smith and the Democrats might not have insisted on a chairman who passed muster with energy industry patrons.

So, it all adds up to a governor who seems fairly comfortable with the de-regulatory philosophy that was Pataki's hallmark, and with a PSC commission and staff that is comfortable with the same philosophy -- despite skepticism that has set in nationally about whether de-regulation will ever deliver on its promise of less expensive energy rates, and hopes among NY advocates for a more activist commission that would provide tighter oversight across a broad range of issues.

Susan Lerner of NY Common Cause: "We think this is a real missed opportunity to move an agency that has been asleep at the switch." Another advocate, who asked not to be named, put it more directly: "It really gives Republicans a lock on the commission until 2012."

Why would a Democratic governor who is collecting lots of campaign contributions through Republican lobbyist Al D'Amato (Energy East, Covanta Energy, NRG) want to do that?

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