Reimagine LIPA is a campaign* of grassroots organizations that believe we must fully commit to a new paradigm of energy management in the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) service area.
In the aftermath of Tropical Storm Isaias, a group of ratepayers and organizations began campaigning to urge the LIPA to terminate its contract with PSEG-LI and finally end the failed public-private model for our utility. The storm resulted in 645,000 LIPA customers without power for, on average, more than 2-7 days, and we now know that PSEG lied about its preparedness for the storm, its immediate response to it, and the number of upgrades it made afterwards.
Our vision is that LIPA begins to operate and manage the grid itself to become a locally-controlled public electric utility. Private utilities such as PSEG-LI are eliminated. LIPA is restructured with an appointed governing board that local voices help determine, has a fairer rate structure, invests its revenues locally, and upgrades the grid to make it more reliable, renewable, and resilient.
Over the past few years, we have built a network of supporters through the Reimagine LIPA campaign, consistently mobilized ratepayers to weigh in at LIPA Board meetings, held forums on the benefits of public power, organized rallies, and published pieces in multiple media outlets.
Then, in the 2022-23 NYS budget, lawmakers–at our urging–included legislation and secured funding for a legislative commission that is developing the roadmap to a restructured LIPA. This new commission marks the end of decades of disastrous public-private partnerships in the management of our electric utility. Along with $2 million to fund its work, this commission is blazing a path towards a truly public utility.
Our work now is to ensure this process leads to a LIPA that is led by and accountable to those most affected by decisions concerning our energy system on Long Island and in the Rockaways: ratepayers, union workers, municipalities, community organizations, low-income households, and environmental justice communities. This will mean ensuring that all parts of the Commission are guided by impacted stakeholders who have a vision for a truly accountable, democratic, renewable, and affordable energy system.
*Campaign supporters include: Long Island Progressive Coalition; All Our Energy; Alliance for a Green Economy; Bay Shore Babylon Women’s Huddle; Climate Reality Project, Long Island Chapter; Cooperation Long Island; Environmental Action Coalition; Food & Water Action; Four Directions Mutual Aid; Green Party of Nassau County; HUMuS: Huntington Mobilization for Sustainability; Long Island Activists; Long Island Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives; Long Island Metro Business Action (LIMBA); LINC: Long Island Network for Change; Mothers Out Front Long Island Team; NAACP Freeport-Roosevelt Youth; Nassau County Democratic Socialists of America; Nassau Hiking & Outdoor Club; New York Communities for Change; NOW: National Organization for Women, Suffolk Chapter; NY02 Indivisible; NYPAN/PEER: Progressive East End Reformers; NY Renews; OLA of Eastern Long Island; Peak Power LI; People's Climate Movement-NY; Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic; Rockaway Women For Progress; Shinnecock Grave Protection Warrior Society; Sierra Club Long Island; South Country Peace Group, Inc.; S.T.R.O.N.G Youth, Inc.; Suffolk County Democratic Socialists of America; Suffolk Progressives; Sunrise Long Island; Sustainability Department of the Sisters of St. Joseph, Brentwood; Together We Will LI; Transition Town Port Washington; Warriors of the Sunrise.