WASHINGTON – Legislation that would have stopped power line companies from using federal authority to take private property died Saturday on the Assembly floor.
The amendment, introduced by Congressmen Michael Arcuri (D-Utica), John Hall (D- Dover Plains) and Maurice Hinchey (D-Hurley) within the New Direction for Energy Independence, National Security and Consumer Protection Act, would have denied Washington-approved power line projects access to federal eminent domain authority.
“We understand that there are serious energy needs facing this country that must be addressed swiftly and judiciously. All this amendment does is prevent an already approved company from using federal eminent domain to drag a property owner into federal court and take his land,” Arcuri said Saturday. “That is a supreme power of the federal government, and one which I believe a majority of the members would agree should not be delegated to a private company.”
New York Regional Interconnect Inc., a private subsidiary of Canadian energy developers, is seeking to build a 190-mile-long high voltage power line from Utica to Orange County. The facility would transfer power from the Marcy substation to downstate, NYRI officials say, and relieve energy constraints in metropolitan New York. The project, which could undergo a federal review even if it is denied at the state level, would impact roughly a thousand property owners in Chenango County.
“We’ll still try to do everything we can to stop this power line from going through,” said Norwich resident Perry Owen in response to learning Arcuri’s amendment was defeated.
Owen and his wife Venetia compiled the list of local property owners that would lose land in the NYRI deal. He believes there is a way for NYRI to transport electricity and not displace land owners.
“They can bury it,” Owen said. “That would avoid all eminent domain issues. That would avoid towers and everything.”
Owen says even NYRI proposes to bury part of its line on maps in its transmission line review studies and application, which has yet to be completed and submitted to the state’s Public Service Commission. NYRI officials have said burying the line for 190 miles would not be feasible.
Although the amendment was not adopted, Arcuri said the debate it has created in Washington is positive.
“We have succeeded in turning our local fight against NYRI into a national issue as more and more representatives recognize this could happen in their backyards,” said Arcuri. “Our fight is not over, and today we were able to gain important downstate allies in the fight against NYRI’s plan to knife a scar through our backyards and our communities.”
NYRI announced plans for the transmission line in March 2006. Thousands from communities along the line’s route have come out in opposition to project, citing negative health, economic and environmental impacts that it could incur.
State officials were successful in passing a bill that blocks NYRI’s use of state eminent domain authority. That bill is soon to be challenged in state Supreme Court.
Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) is also set to introduce anti-NYRI legislation, his office has said.
The U.S. Department of Energy also announced preliminary designations of National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors. Inside the corridors, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission could supplant state authority and approve a power line project. Most of New York State and all of NYRI’s are covered by that designation, as are 10 other states on the east and west coasts. The corridors, created under the 2005 Energy Policy Act, are meant to fast-track investment in what has been called an “aging” energy infrastructure.