Speaking of outgoing Long Island Power Authority chief Richard Kessel, a wide-ranging interview with the man behind LIPA elicited a host of Kesselisms difficult to leave on the cutting room floor. To wit:
On whether wind turbines on the horizon would ruin the view from Jones Beach: "Maybe they shouldn't have put the Statue of Liberty out in the water."
On Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli's claim that Long Island ratepayers weren't protected in the National Grid deal: "I love Tom DiNapoli, I talk to him all the time, but I don't agree with his staff."
On whether he's made certain preparations at home in light of staffing cuts planned by National Grid: "I don't have a generator, and I don't intend to buy one."
On why the KeySpan-National Grid contract wasn't put out to bid: "The cost [for the bidding process] would have been in the millions and millions of dollars, and we never would have gotten the benefits we got from this deal."
On whether micro-turbines will meet renewable-energy mandates: "You're not going to do it by putting a few freaking windmills on top of cell towers. You'll do it by large-scale projects such as the South Shore wind farm. ... The debate is not over."
On the Dolan family: "If they offered me a job coaching the Knicks, I'd do it in a minute."
On being LIPA CEO: "It's the toughest job on Long Island. ... It's taken a lot of sweat out of me."
On whether he needs to work, post-LIPA: "I'm a middle-class guy. I absolutely need to work."
On the role he played: "I think I gave the utility company a heart."
On whether he was a shill for former Gov. George Pataki: "That's nonsense. Gov. Pataki never asked me to do anything for anyone."
On former U.S. Sen. Alfonse D'Amato's possible influence in LIPA's award to D'Amato client FPL Energy to build the wind farm: "If you think we chose FPL because Alfonse D'Amato represented them, that's preposterous."
On his lack of utility experience: "Why do you have to know how a transformer works to be successful?"
On working in the private sector: "I could go out and make a lot of money now, if I want to. BORING."
On LIPA's charitable giving: "If you added up everything I did, and it's a million dollars out of a $3.7 billion budget, and we helped the Red Cross and the Girl Scouts, then go criticize me."
On running for public office: "I'm not going to rule it out."
On his ubiquitous public persona: "Would you rather have that or have a spokesman out there and me under my desk hiding during a storm?"
On whether Kessel forgot where he came from: "I am where I came from [Merrick]. I have to do things differently because I'm running a $3.7-billion company. I think I'm the most open utility official in the United States of America."
On LIPA as Kessel and vice versa: "I am too much LIPA and LIPA is too much me. Ultimately, LIPA has to be beyond who I am. I think it's healthy for it to separate at some point."
--Mark Harrington