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Power Plan Needs Scrutiny
Poughkeepsie Journal
March 19, 2007

New York officials have to resolve long-standing differences about how best to serve the state's energy needs, and the fight over a proposed 200-mile electric-transmission line from the Utica area to Orange County is proving instructive.

Communities along the intended route are lining up against the project. And the state's most powerful leaders - including Gov. Eliot Spitzer and U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton - have raised doubts about the plan as envisioned. The company, Albany-based New York Regional Interconnect Inc., has been putting forth its case, not only lobbying in Washington but touting how the high-voltage transmission line would benefit wind farms looking for viable ways to the market.

There is no doubt the state's power needs are growing. Still, whether this is the best route for such a line is questionable, at best. The proposed line, which would run from Marcy in Oneida County to New Windsor in Orange County, would not directly serve New York City, but would relieve key bottlenecks along the way.

Opponents say new generating plants should be created closer to New York City, where the energy is needed or, better yet, that conservation efforts and alternative fuels be used instead. Residents along the proposed line also are against the placement of a series of tall, obtrusive utility poles through their communities and understandably want more specifics about the proposed route. The project faces a number of bureaucratic hurdles before it could proceed.

At one point, another developer, Conjunction LLC, had a different solution: burying a power cable along the New York State Thruway, to deliver to the city some of the power being generated upstate. This would eliminate the need for another line of high-voltage towers through the mid-Hudson countryside. Unfortunately, finding investment money for this venture proved difficult in a market that's been squeamish since the Enron energy trading scandal. And the Pataki administration never offered its support for the idea, so it fizzled.

Comprehensive energy plan

But the state Public Service Commission has told New York Regional Interconnect to consider this alternative, and it is doing so.

Spitzer also mentioned this alternative when asked by the Associated Press about his views of the proposed route that is running into so much opposition. The governor also concedes the state needs a comprehensive energy plan, one that places a premium on bringing alternative fuels to the market as well as creating new legal guidelines for the construction of power plants. State lawmakers allowed those rules to expire years ago and have been unable to work out the details.

They can't afford to wait much longer. Two reputable sources -the National Academy of Sciences for the U.S. Department of Energy and the Independent System Operator, which runs the wholesale electricity market in the state - say in two years New York City in particular will need more power than is currently being generated.

In its report, the academy cited the "political, regulatory, financial and institutional'' impediments to building new power plants in the state. The same can be said about transmission lines.

Merely opposing New York Regional Interconnect's project doesn't address the broader issues. The state needs a comprehensive energy plan, and fast.

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