Mr. Farling said that maintenance had been deferred too long on the company's fossil-fuel plants because of a lack of cash.

Currently the site holds a fossil-fuel plant, Sheldon Station.

The board will also study whether one of the units can be converted to a fossil-fuel plant.

Today, most of electricity is produced through fossil-fuel powered plants.

This demand was largely met with fossil-fuel powered plants.

Moreover, they say, hindsight is proving that nuclear plants are less cost-efficient than fossil-fuel plants.

In the meantime, Long Island is being bombarded with pollutants from its fossil-fuel plants.

And they also pay higher rates on property leases than fossil-fuel plants do.

One alternative, he said, would be to fire up one of its dormant fossil-fuel plants, which would mean more air pollution.

Last year, Con Edison sold three fossil-fuel plants.