ESCO CEO: If New York Succeeds in Shutting Down Retail Market, Other States Will Follow

If New York is successful in shutting down the retail energy market, other states will soon follow New York's action, Phil Van Horne, CEO of BlueRock Energy, warned ESCOs during the National Energy Marketers Association's 19th Annual National Restructuring Conference

"If you think it's just New York, I'm going to tell you, you're wrong," Van Horne warned.

"If New York succeeds in shutting down the industry, it will bleed over fairly quickly into other states," Van Horne said

Van Horne lamented that even in the face of the market-killing New York order, ESCOs responded in a relatively fragmented manner compared to other stakeholders. Van Horne noted that three separate suits from ESCO-aligned parties were filed against the New York PSC's February 23 order, each of which incurred separate costs. Van Horne contrasted this with the New York utilities, which typically file as a single voice on any generic policy issue, as the joint utilities.

"I can't encourage you enough to get involved. We need to get together as an industry. We need to do what the utilities are doing; we need to have one common voice [and] pool our resources," including both monetary resources and intellectual capital, Van Horne said