During the shutdown, which took place around the time power markets were being deregulated, Con Edison bought replacement energy from out-of-state suppliers.

Local supplies of limestone, a key ingredient in cement, are very limited, and potential competition from out-of-state suppliers is constrained by high transport costs.

In addition, when the state starts deregulating sales of electricity in 1998, she wants the same tax rate applied to in-state utilities and out-of-state suppliers.

The out-of-state suppliers are exempt from the current tax, the Gross Receipts and Franchise Tax.

The operation was simple: beer wholesalers would sell cases from upstate and out-of-state suppliers, getting payments in cash.

Recently, when I called for wines from my regular out-of-state suppliers, they refused to ship, saying it was a felony - for me, too.

Governor Whitman proposed the change because New Jersey plans to deregulate energy sales by 2000 and open the state to out-of-state suppliers.

She said that nurses in the hospital's outpatient clinic had been receiving telephone calls from out-of-state suppliers of medical equipment requesting diagnostic information about specific patients.

The state's six utilities are financially healthy, and New York depends much less than California on out-of-state suppliers.

Certainly there has been no "balanced" spending to wean Long Island from expensive foreign and out-of-state suppliers of fossil fuels and toward renewables.