CHENANGO COUNTY – Players with private and public interest in the nation’s energy policy are meeting this afternoon in Washington to examine the need for federal involvement in state energy issues – which locally could involve fast-tracking New York Regional Interconnect Inc.’s controversial 190-mile-long power line through upstate.
At the 2 p.m. hearing, Congressman Michael Arcuri (D-Utica), along with members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, will be questioning officials from the U.S. Department of Energy, two state energy committees, private and state-owned utilities, and environmental and historic preservation organizations in regards to the validity of the 2005 Energy Policy Act, and its provisions that could push NYRI’s project through despite existing state governance.
NYRI is not listed as one of the witnesses.
“We must cover all the bases and take every necessary step to stop NYRI’s advances,” Arcuri said Tuesday afternoon. “I welcome the opportunity that this hearing provides to make clear to Department of Energy officials just how strong local opposition is to the power line proposal in New York state.”
New York State Assemblyman Paul Tonko, chair of the Assembly Energy Committee, is among the witnesses who will be questioned during the proceedings. Also, representatives from the Piedmont Environmental Council and National Trust for Historic Preservation, who have been working with the local NYRI opposition groups, will be on hand.
Under certain circumstances, section 1221 of the energy act could eventually allow the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to overstep a state’s authority and review a power line proposal, even if the proposal was already denied at the state level. In order to do so, the DOE would first have to designate a state as part of a National Interest Electric Transmissions Corridor. Corridors are expected to be announced in the near future, but no date has been given (in an August 2006 electricity congestion study that will influence NIETC designations, the DOE deemed southern New York state to be a “Critical Congestion” area).
Secondly, in New York, the state Public Service Commission would have to fail to approve or deny NYRI’s project within one year of receiving a complete Article VII review application from the company, or approve it with stipulations that would render the project unfeasible. NYRI has not completed the Article VII application.
DOE officials contend that private investment in power lines, from investors like NYRI, will be necessary to maintain the nations energy infrastructure.
“It is very difficult to imagine how our economy and our society would function without the interstate highway system,” said Kevin Kovelar, the DOE’s Director of Electricity Delivery and Reliability, during an Aug. 8, 2006 address speaking for the just released congestion study and the necessity of increased transmission. “Now, it is time to create the transmission equivalent of the interstate highway network. Regional electric power delivery systems must be upgraded and woven together just as our networks of state and local roads needed to be upgraded fifty years ago.”
However, communities and municipal governments along the nearly 200-mile route from Oneida to Orange County have brought strong opposition to NYRI’s project – questioning its routing choices and lack of alternatives – and its perceived importance in the state and country’s electricity network.
In response, state legislators have been successful in implementing an anti-NYRI law that blocks the company’s use of eminent domain to take private property. Arcuri, who lives a few hundred yards from where the line would sit in Utica, has also introduced two pieces of legislation in Congress that seek to repeal section 1221 of the energy act and block NYRI’s use of federal eminent domain if it is ever given federal approval.
“This hearing is one more step in our fight against NYRI's poorly-planned and ill-conceived power line proposal,” Arcuri said.
NYRI claims its power line will relieve electricity congestion downstate and make the state’s grid more reliable. However, the PSC ruled in NYRI’s original Article VII filing, which was deemed incomplete, that the power line developer failed to prove how it would increase reliability.
NYRI’s line would split six townships, two villages and 44 miles in Chenango County.