Good New Year News
The New Year opens with unexpected good news. Brooklyn Union Gas, a utility considered one of the nation's best-run, is merging with one of the worst, the Long Island Lighting Company. The advantages for LILCO's ratepayers should be many.
Long Island's high electric rates, second only to Hawaii's, not only are promised to come down but may even become competitive with what is paid elsewhere for the same service. Equally important, natural gas will be extended all over the Island, including the faraway East End. This clean alternative to oil and electric heat will be welcome.
Envisioned in the future are computer-run "neutral fuel" programs which will select the cheapest source for lighting, cooling, and heating businesses and houses. When the price of oil soars, as it has this winter, natural gas will be piped in instead.
Those who will be part of the management of New York Energy, as the new entity probably will be known, have announced that there will be no layoffs. Instead, the company will rely on attrition to help achieve cost-cutting.
In business, one plus one occasionally equals three. When that happens, financial analysts call it synergy. This deal is synergistic - for LILCO, for Brooklyn Union, and for the people of Long Island.