PSEG Long Island President Scott Jennings apologized publicly Wednesday at a Long Island Power Authority board meeting over comments made by a former company supervisor in March about using shutoffs and other aggressive tactics to pressure customers behind on their bills.
Jennings said he and the company were in “complete agreement” that the remarks were “totally unacceptable,” adding: “We own the issue, we’ve taken this very seriously and we apologize for his comments.” The apology came as the LIPA board unanimously approved a resolution expanding its review of credit and collection practices, including protections for seniors, medically vulnerable individuals and low-income households.
The uproar began after the former PSEG supervisor spoke at a conference in March and described methods for getting customers in arrears to pay up. The comments drew outrage from Gov. Kathy Hochul and Public Service Commission Chairman Rory Christian, triggering a statewide investigation into how the utility handles collections. Last year, the LIPA board renewed PSEG Long Island’s contract for five years at a cost of $493 million to manage the electric grid.
Tracey Edwards, the LIPA chairwoman, called the remarks “unacceptable and deeply troubling” and said they raised “broader questions regarding collection practices, customer interactions, training, oversight and departmental culture.” Those concerns now sit at the center of the board’s review, which will also examine two years of PSC and customer complaints tied to debt collections and call for work with peer utilities, customer advocates, union leaders and other stakeholders to study best practices and reforms.
The dispute also exposed a sharper tension inside the company’s response. PSEG has suspended shutoffs for collections while it reviews its practices and has launched an internal review, but it has not stopped collections by outside agencies. That distinction matters because the controversy is centered on the comments of a former supervisor, not on a formal company policy statement, even as critics argue the language reflected something deeper.
Dominick Macchia pressed that point at the meeting, saying, “Let’s be brutally honest,” and arguing that the supervisor “was your fair-haired boy” with top collections and likely spread that approach through the group. He said, “It wasn’t a one-off. It was cultural,” while also cautioning that “it’s not fair to paint everybody with the same brush that way.” For PSEG, the apology may help calm the immediate fight, but the board’s expanded review ensures the company’s collection practices will stay under scrutiny for months to come.
