Victory in battle against NYRI, but the war's not over
NORWICH – Governor Pataki traveled to Marcy Tuesday to place his ‘John Hancock’ on legislation that would limit a Canadian-based company’s plans to take private property for a high-voltage power line.
The proposed 190-mile long transmission line would originate from Oneida County and end at the Rock Tavern substation in Orange County. New York Regional Interconnect, Inc. announced the project in March.
Tuesday’s action followed two months of discussions between the governor and the bill’s co-sponsors, Sen. Thomas W. Libous, R-Binghamton, and John Bonacic, R-Mount Hope. Libous said it would have been “irresponsible” to send it before addressing better solutions to energy problems downstate.
The new law will amend the Transportation Corporations Law to prohibit gas and electric merchant transmission corporations from using eminent domain in New York, if the construction increases rates in any part of the state and if the corporation did not receive early designation as a National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor.
A spokesperson for NYRI said the eminent domain bill was “based on a bad premise” because the power line has benefits for all New Yorkers in the way of increased sales tax, decreased energy costs, cleaner power generation and incentives to the communities through which the line passes.
Opponents recognize that the legislation might lack the necessary teeth to block the project entirely. If NYRI’s chosen route is designated a federal transmission corridor, the U.S. government could decide to approve the line even if the state’s government rejects it.
In a media statement released last night, 42nd District State Senatorial candidate Susan Zemit said the bill offers “only false hope.”
“The stage is set for a long, expensive legal battle – on the taxpayers’ dime – which could end with the federal government using its powers granted in the Energy Act of 2005 to just take the land anyway,” she said
Other state politicians weighed in on the Governor’s action Tuesday. The 24th District candidate for Congress Ray Meier met with supporters at McGirks Irish Pub in Chenango Bridge last night, celebrating “one more win for upstate New York in the war to stop the lines...”
State Sen. James L. Seward said, “I fought this plan from the beginning with every weapon in our utility belt: hearings by the senate that gained key information about their plan; organizing the counties into a central response and advocacy unit; senate financing to engage NYRI in the courtroom, and now a law on the books that makes this plan so much more difficult for the foreign investors who won’t live here under the towers they want to build in our backyards – the backyards of our school buildings, homes, farms, woods and businesses. Here’s our message to NYRI’s investors: It’s our upstate, not yours.”
Communities Against Regional Interconnect (CARI), a coalition of four citizens’ groups and eight counties, engaged elected officials almost immediately after NYRI’s plans were announced. Stop NYRI, Inc. Co-Chairperson Dave Hollis said, “We have successfully moved all but a handful of them to our side. Most importantly, we have demonstrated to NYRI that they are in for a difficult fight.”
STOP NYRI members have testified at state Senate and Assembly hearings on the power line proposal; helped convince the Senate to spend money $1 million to fight the project; encouraged Madison and Chenango counties to allocate money to fight the power line; received national media coverage on the subject, and have had a voice before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in Washington, D.C.
“We are fortunate to have had many events go our way thus far, but we cannot afford to think our work is done. Too much is at stake,” Hollis said.
Local Green Party activist Mary Jo Long said 600 signed petitions were sent to the PSC on Sept 25., calling for evidentiary hearings in the communities most affected by the NYRI powerline proposal rather than in Albany.
Should NYRI have been permitted to take private property by eminent domain, local hearings would have been the only opportunity for affected homeowners/landowners to hear and be heard on the issue. Long said signed petitions will be mailed to the PSC every few weeks.
“It is this kind of grassroots involvement that will guarantee that the people will be heard,” she said.
The proposed 190-mile long transmission line would originate from Oneida County and end at the Rock Tavern substation in Orange County. New York Regional Interconnect, Inc. announced the project in March.
Tuesday’s action followed two months of discussions between the governor and the bill’s co-sponsors, Sen. Thomas W. Libous, R-Binghamton, and John Bonacic, R-Mount Hope. Libous said it would have been “irresponsible” to send it before addressing better solutions to energy problems downstate.
The new law will amend the Transportation Corporations Law to prohibit gas and electric merchant transmission corporations from using eminent domain in New York, if the construction increases rates in any part of the state and if the corporation did not receive early designation as a National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor.
A spokesperson for NYRI said the eminent domain bill was “based on a bad premise” because the power line has benefits for all New Yorkers in the way of increased sales tax, decreased energy costs, cleaner power generation and incentives to the communities through which the line passes.
Opponents recognize that the legislation might lack the necessary teeth to block the project entirely. If NYRI’s chosen route is designated a federal transmission corridor, the U.S. government could decide to approve the line even if the state’s government rejects it.
In a media statement released last night, 42nd District State Senatorial candidate Susan Zemit said the bill offers “only false hope.”
“The stage is set for a long, expensive legal battle – on the taxpayers’ dime – which could end with the federal government using its powers granted in the Energy Act of 2005 to just take the land anyway,” she said
Other state politicians weighed in on the Governor’s action Tuesday. The 24th District candidate for Congress Ray Meier met with supporters at McGirks Irish Pub in Chenango Bridge last night, celebrating “one more win for upstate New York in the war to stop the lines...”
State Sen. James L. Seward said, “I fought this plan from the beginning with every weapon in our utility belt: hearings by the senate that gained key information about their plan; organizing the counties into a central response and advocacy unit; senate financing to engage NYRI in the courtroom, and now a law on the books that makes this plan so much more difficult for the foreign investors who won’t live here under the towers they want to build in our backyards – the backyards of our school buildings, homes, farms, woods and businesses. Here’s our message to NYRI’s investors: It’s our upstate, not yours.”
Communities Against Regional Interconnect (CARI), a coalition of four citizens’ groups and eight counties, engaged elected officials almost immediately after NYRI’s plans were announced. Stop NYRI, Inc. Co-Chairperson Dave Hollis said, “We have successfully moved all but a handful of them to our side. Most importantly, we have demonstrated to NYRI that they are in for a difficult fight.”
STOP NYRI members have testified at state Senate and Assembly hearings on the power line proposal; helped convince the Senate to spend money $1 million to fight the project; encouraged Madison and Chenango counties to allocate money to fight the power line; received national media coverage on the subject, and have had a voice before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in Washington, D.C.
“We are fortunate to have had many events go our way thus far, but we cannot afford to think our work is done. Too much is at stake,” Hollis said.
Local Green Party activist Mary Jo Long said 600 signed petitions were sent to the PSC on Sept 25., calling for evidentiary hearings in the communities most affected by the NYRI powerline proposal rather than in Albany.
Should NYRI have been permitted to take private property by eminent domain, local hearings would have been the only opportunity for affected homeowners/landowners to hear and be heard on the issue. Long said signed petitions will be mailed to the PSC every few weeks.
“It is this kind of grassroots involvement that will guarantee that the people will be heard,” she said.
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