N.Y.’s Spitzer Names James Larocca LIPA Chairman

N.Y. Gov. Eliot Spitzer yesterday appointed James Larocca as chairman of the Long Island Power Authority. Larocca, who comes with a long resume of public and private sector experience, and was the state’s first energy commissioner, will take the place of Kevin Law, who served in that position until he was appointed president and chief executive officer by LIPA’s board of trustees last week. Larocca yesterday said he had ideas for the future of the authority but mostly spoke broadly about its mission. “It needs to mature into a more dynamic organization and it faces many challenges in two principal areas — rates and reliability,” he said. LIPA will be a key player in Spitzer’s plan to reduce energy consumption by 15% of projected use by 2015. Larocca said the governor’s energy agenda is “realistic and necessary.”“Realistic energy conservation must be an important part as must be the development of alternative sources and alternative uses and practices, but we’ll have more to say as time goes on,” he said. Larocca, who is a distinguished professor of public policy at Long Island University’s Riverhead graduate campus, began serving in state government as a deputy secretary to Gov. Hugh Carey in 1975. From 1977 to 1982, he was the state’s commissioner of energy and chairman of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, and under Gov. Mario Cuomo he became transportation commissioner from 1983 to 1985 and a trustee at the New York Power Authority from 1982 to 1989. He also served as a director at KeySpan Energy Co. and unsuccesfully sought the democratic nomination for governor in 1998. Larocca graduated from Hofstra University in Long Island with a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1964 and then served in the Navy, including a tour of duty in Vietnam. He earned his law degree from the Columbus School of Law at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., in 1974.