Every year, Chuck commits to traveling to all62 counties in New York to meet with constituents.
Schumer today called on the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) to put in place a comprehensive emergency storm response plan in conjunction with Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) to ensure that the Island has sufficient number of personnel and resources available to address massive power outages in a timely and efficient way in the aftermath of a major storm. In the aftermath of Irene, over half a million LIPA customers were without power. It damaged 900 poles, 1,000 transformers, 80 switches and required a million feet of wire and cable to be replaced. There were approximately 900,000 customer calls received. In total it took 9 days to bring every home and business back on line. With the transition to a smaller PSEG workforce, and the lack of a new system to communicate with the public, Schumer raised concerns about what that could mean for restoring power in the future. Schumer wants to ensure that by the time the new merger between LIPA and PSEG takes effect, a fully unified storm response plan, that addresses changes in immediately accessible and contracted workforces, as well as communications issues raised by the PSC report, are fully addressed.