SHERBURNE – They say only fools rush in, but preemptive strikes by the Village of Sherburne could eventually play a significant role in thwarting an almost invisible, yet very real enemy: New York Regional Interconnect Inc.
Within days of receiving NYRI’s March 31 power line proposal, Mayor Bill Acee and the village board joined the City of Utica in retaining legal counsel, without any real knowledge of the project, just a sense of its magnitude.
“We immediately decided to coordinate our efforts on the offensive, instead of the defensive,” said Village Trustee Stephen Dunshee. “It was unanimous – the discussion was all for it.” Dunshee said the decision to immediately jump into the fight wasn’t given an afterthought, considering the implications NYRI’s power line would have for Sherburne. “It would be detrimental to our village,” he said. “They want to run it right down the middle of Sherburne, physically taking out homes and businesses.”
Since March, a number of citizen’s groups and government alliances have formed up and down the line in a grassroots effort to raise awareness and much-needed funding. Locally, groups such as STOP NYRI, The Regional Congress of citizen’s groups, and Communities Against Regional Interconnect (an eight-county alliance of officials and citizens) have worked together and separately to create opposition on several different fronts.
Attorney Daniel Duthie, an experienced utility lawyer from Orange County who’s representing the village in the NYRI case, says the Albany power company’s approach to relieving New York state’s energy problems has been half-hearted at best.
“Before, there was never any issue as to the competency of these companies,” Duthie said, referring to the seven utility companies that developed and constructed power lines in New York state prior to market deregulation. “It’s a different world now; we need more information.”
When asked if the identities and histories of NYRI’s developers and investors was needed for a project to gain approval under an Article VII review, state Public Service Commission Secretary Jaclyn Brilling outlined a set of required criteria – that did not include the financial or technical make-up of the company.
NYRI’s initial attempt at filing an Article VII review was turned back in July because it had several deficiencies, rendering the application incomplete. Duthie has since filed a motion to the PSC asking that NYRI be required to provide additional technical and environmental information if the company re-files, on top of what the PSC ruled was left out the first time around. A ruling on the motion is expected in November.
Duthie acknowledges that the state and the country are in serious need of electricity upgrades, but contends that a 200 mile-long power line will be a technologically obsolete and inefficient fix to downstate’s problems, doing more harm than good.
“The most important thing is not to simply oppose the project, but to come up with better options to solve the problem,” he said. “If a project lowers prices downstate, but raises prices upstate, then you haven’t really solved the problem.”
The attorney says that past models – much like Sherburne’s current municipal electric generation and distribution system – combined with advanced technologies of the present, may be the small scale answers to fixing large scale problems.
“Maybe the industry will come full circle,” Duthie said, pointing out that local cogeneration, renewable energy resources, in-house self-sustaining systems, and upgrades of existing transmission facilities are just a few viable answers. “People would find a generation plant more palatable as opposed to ruining 200 miles worth of countryside.”
Duthie said reinstating the Article X generation siting law, which expired in 2002, should be a priority in the state legislature in the upcoming session. He also believes that the federal government will not get involved in the state’s energy issues, based on a history of answering its own energy challenges.
“I have never seen a community unite 100 percent in my entire career,” he said, referring to the multitude of municipalities now united by NYRI’s 200-mile-long power line proposal from Oneida to Orange County.
The Village of Sherburne is also involved in a separate lawsuit with the City of Utica against the New York Susquehanna & Western Railroad from Cooperstown, in an attempt to void a supposed land deal giving NYRI access to railroad right of ways to build their line. Industrial Development Agencies from Broome, Chenango, Madison and Oneida counties currently hold ownership over the rail lines, in separate lease agreement that allow the NYS&W to operate tax free.
According to a report made this morning by the The Post Standard, the Oneida County IDA revoked its tax free agreement with the railroad at a meeting on Thursday. The Post Standard reported that the IDA cited NYS&W’s relationship with NYRI, and the railroad’s refusal to disclose information regarding financial agreements with the company, as the reason for not renewing the contract, which had been under negotiations.
Chenango IDA Attorney James Downey said that there’s been no request from the NYS&W for permission to provide NYRI a land deal in Chenango County.
Calls to City of Utica Mayor Timothy Julian and city Attorney Joseph Giruzzi regarding the lawsuit were not returned as of press time.