44.0°,
Mostly Cloudy Hempstead Town could have locked in lower energy prices
Across the USA, headlines cite skyrocketing energy costs and the strain they are putting on American families. Here on Long Island, homeowners and businesses are feeling pain in their wallets not felt for years.
In 2019, when I was Hempstead town supervisor, I spearheaded an energy program that today would be collectively saving town residents millions of dollars on their energy bills. It would have been the first such program on Long Island, and if it had moved forward, participating residents’ and businesses’ utility bills town would now be 50 percent lower, according to published National Grid rates.
Sure enough, the Town of Brookhaven just implemented the program, and I applaud Supervisor Ed Romaine and the town board for their leadership. But the Hempstead Town Board killed the program in 2019, without explanation and without reason in a move that demonstrated a callous disregard for town taxpayers.
While I was supervisor, I learned about a program called “Community Choice Aggregation,” which allows municipalities to enter the marketplace to collectively negotiate for better energy costs for their residents and businesses. The theory is that thousands of residents’ bargaining power exceeds that of any individual. The program is strictly regulated by the state Department of Public Service to ensure that residents are protected, and the program only moves forward if there are demonstrable savings.
There is a regulated process: A municipality must first pass enabling legislation to allow it to seek vendors. After that, it does so by way of a bidding process. Once a vendor is chosen, a second resolution, awarding a contract, must be passed. Then the vendor negotiates on behalf of the municipality, obtaining the best rates and, with a third resolution, the municipality approves a contract for residents at those rates. There are strict notice requirements and opt-out options to protect residents.
At a Town Board meeting that December, I put forward a resolution to award the contract so the selected vendor could begin negotiating with utility providers. But a motion was made to table the proposal.
“I urge my colleagues to change their minds,” I pleaded, “because we have the opportunity right now to deliver some savings to our residents in this town. And this will only move forward if residents save money, and if we delay this, there is very little chance that any resident will be able to save money this season.”
Nevertheless, every councilmember voted to table the item, and stopped Community Choice Aggregation from moving forward.
Had the resolution passed that December, the vendor would have had a generous 90-day window to negotiate rates, a period that would have stretched from January or February to April or May 2020. That March, coronavirus shutdowns caused the price of energy to plummet. Energy was trading at such historic lows that town residents could have gotten rates on natural gas not seen in roughly a decade.
National Grid records show that the average price for natural gas in March 2020 was 39.1 cents per therm, and in April, 34 cents. The town could have locked in a fixed rate in this range — and likely a bit lower — for years. The average price per therm last month was 72.4 cents — roughly double.
Skyrocketing costs are painful to all, and crippling to those on fixed incomes. There was zero risk in moving forward with this program, only a potential upside — and residents would now be saving 50 percent on their National Grid bills.
I urged incoming supervisor Don Clavin to take up the program after I departed Town Hall, but he and the board have taken no action to move it. My deputy visited other municipalities to urge them to explore Community Choice Aggregation in the hope that that might pressure Hempstead. Brookhaven is moving on the program, and other municipalities aren’t far behind. The sensible voices of those who actually serve residents need to prevail in Hempstead and across New York state. The alarming headlines about energy prices continue, and constituents would be wise to demand that those in office move this program forward when rates are favorable.
Laura A. Gillen, who served as Hempstead town supervisor from 2018 to 2021, is a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in New York’s 4th Congressional District.
