Saturday, April 04, 2009

Dare We Celebrate?

NYRI quits; Power line project dead.

But what about the next project, and the next one?
NYRI also said it “remains committed to transmission development in New York State,” and that it is “suspending its current participation in the New York Public Service Commission Article VII process.”
This clearly will come up again. . . And if not from NYRI, then, perhaps, from our own New York Power Authority which may dust off some old plans to run a line under the Hudson River to bring Upstate power to NYC.

Per the Utica Daily News version of the story:
Former Utica Mayor Timothy Julian challenges the state legislature to “get off their behinds” and put an energy plan in place with other viable options.

“They have to put an energy plan in place,” Julian said, “so we don’t have to deal with this every so many years.”

Julian is absolutely correct. But even assuming an energy plan is put in place, it will likely be forged from a Downstate perspective given the constituencies who control the state legislature. It would be easy for Downstate to push the business of power generation onto Upstate hillsides and require lines to bring the power to them.

Upstate needs to agitate for the power it needs to control its own fate -- and I'm not talking about electricity.

3 comments:

Greens and Beans said...

It is okay to be jubilant over the victory over the NYRI battle. Strikeslip’s cautionary warning should be well taken. The NYRI battle has been won, but the war may be far from over. Former Utica Mayor Tim Julian is on the mark with calling for a statewide energy policy. But I wouldn’t hold my breath for one anytime soon. We all realize that the devil is always in the details. And as Strikeslip points out, the Governor and the leadership of the New York State Senate and Assembly are all from downstate. They will always funnel the profits towards the downstate elite who finance their election/reelection campaigns. Couple this fact with the apparent weakness of the upstate State officials, and you will discover the reason why I can proclaim that the upstate citizens may never see any hard and fast energy policy.

To put any sort of energy parameters in writing would pigeonhole those who seek to exploit upstate’s energy resources. With an energy policy in place, every subsequent lawsuit would generate a court decision dictating legal precedence for any future energy transmission project. An energy policy would provide a basis for a court battle making it easier to fight. In the absence of an energy policy, as we have experienced with the NYRI battle, the expense will be immense and the citizen participation must be united and focused. The citizens of upstate will be forced to reinvent the wheel with every subsequent transmission line fight. The next crop of energy transmission line corporations, be it NYRI or another startup transmission corporation, are banking on their ability to eventually ware down the upstate people’s will and the $millions it will take to battle each transmission line attempt.

Anonymous said...

Only my opinion but I think the economy and investors are waiting for a better time. It will be back with an altered plan.

NYCO said...

I can't help thinking that people in the path of NYRI were "saved" by the bad economy. NYRI was just one part of a leading edge of an invasive wave of downstate affluence that threatened to obliterate those struggling up here - the people who would not be allowed to participate in the wave of affluence, but would be expected to meekly become cast-offs and flee.

NYRI would not be giving up if Wall Street hadn't crapped out, I'm sure. What about next time? I hope the CARI people understand that.

Still, whatever the cause, the coordination among the different anti-NYRI interest groups and the regional will to fight was very interesting. May it continue.