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Community => Politics and Government => Topic started by: Fpqxz on November 13, 2012, 09:05:21 pm

Title: Lawsuit against LIPA/National Grid over post-hurricane blackouts
Post by: Fpqxz on November 13, 2012, 09:05:21 pm
Story from Bloomberg Businessweek (http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-11-13/long-island-power-authority-sued-over-hurricane-sandy)

Related story from CBS News-NYC (includes link to civil complaint) (http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2012/11/13/class-action-lawsuit-to-be-filed-against-lipa-for-its-response-to-sandy/)

A brief summary of what is going on here:

Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Island_Power_Authority), which is responsible for providing electric power to Nassau and Suffolk Counties of New York and the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens, has been named as a defendant in a class-action lawsuit along with National Grid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Grid_plc), the parent company of KeySpan Energy (LIPA's grid operator).  The suit was commenced in the New York State Supreme Court (which is the trial court in NY, don't ask me why it's called that).

The complaint, which is viewable on Google Docs (https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://cbsnewyork.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/lipa-class-action-lawsuit.pdf&embedded=false&chrome=false&dov=1), contains three counts, alleging negligence in maintenance of facilities, breach of contract, and fraudulent misrepresentations to the customers of these companies, many of whom are still without power or heat.

Furthermore, NY Governor Andrew Cuomo has assembled a commission to investigate utility companies' failures in responding to the outages caused by Hurricane Sandy.

Meanwhile, LIPA's Chief Operating Officer, Michael Hervey, has submitted his resignation according to Long Island Newsday (http://www.newsday.com/long-island/lipa-chief-michael-hervey-resigns-1.4219640?cmpid=Breaking_News_newsletter), the local newspaper of Nassau & Suffolk counties.