Former LIPA CEO Falcone joins power lobby group

Tom Falcone, former CEO of the Long Island Power Authority, was unanimously elected president of the Large Public Power Council, effective Jan. 1, 2025.

Falcone said the position is a natural continuation of his work with public power utilities throughout his career.

"As an investment banker financing projects, as somebody who was at a utility trying to implement these possibilities, and now someone in D.C. trying to make it all come together for our members ? making this work is going to be very important to meet the policy expectations at the state and federal level," Falcone said.

The LPPC lobbies on behalf of 29 major power authorities, including LIPA. Falcone has been involved with LPPC through LIPA for at least a decade, he said. Most recently, he served as chair of its board.

Falcone assumes the presidency as the government weighs whether to renew portions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

"There are some provisions in there that make a huge difference as to whether large public power can build projects affordably, efficiently, and finance them in the tax bond market," Falcone said.

Falcone also hopes to help retain the direct-pay subsidies for renewable energy that were created in the Inflation Reduction Act.

Falcone will work with lawmakers on the pressing needs of the public power industry.

The way Falcone sees it, there are two big forces facing the LPPC's members. First, AI and data centers are using massive amounts of power, creating rapid load growth for utilities providers.

"Some [LPPC members] have to double their load by 2030, and some even have projections that they may need to double it again by 2040," Falcone said.

This isn't unprecedented, Falcone said, but growth like this hasn't happened since the adoption of air conditioning and television in the 1950s and 1960s. Utilities will have to build power plants and transmission infrastructure.

The second trend is the switch to clean energy, which is often mandated by state and federal regulations. These factors combined mean LPPC's members are building infrastructure for clean energy as fast as they can.

This will require several policies, according to Falcone: "access to credit on affordable terms through the tax code, permit reform so we can actually shorten the timeline to build this stuff, and reliability and making sure that what we're doing is workable and achievable with this pretty dramatic change that's coming."

Falcone has worked on behalf of or adjacent to utilities for almost his whole career, he said, beginning with his time as a Morgan Stanley (MS) investment banker, then in his position with LIPA.

Falcone joined LIPA as CFO in 2014 and became CEO two years later. He netted four rating upgrades for the authority during his tenure, achieving the then-highest credit ratings in LIPA's history.

Falcone departed LIPA in March, after New York Gov. Kathy Hochul appointed new members of the LIPA board. Several members of the utility's leadership also departed.