NYRI hearing: Hot night, hot issue

NEW HARTFORD – “It’s a hot night to deal with a hot issue,” said Senator James Seward (R- Milford), in his opening statement during Monday night’s legislative hearing regarding New York Regional Interconnect Inc., at New Hartford High School.

However, aside from a few rounds of rousing laughter and regular bursts of applause from the crowd of roughly 250 people, the atmosphere in the air-conditioned auditorium remained fairly cool.

Senators Seward, Raymond Meier (R-Western), James Wright (R-Watertown), and David Valesky (D-Oneida), along with invited local speakers, mainly focused on the necessity of examining both energy project and policy alternatives.

“We have to ask why downstate can’t solve its own energy problems,” said Senator Meier. “If they’re taking cheap upstate energy to an expensive market, there is no incentive for them to build generation capabilities.”

Seward asked representatives of the New York State Public Service Commission who were on-hand if neglecting to include environmental, energy conservation, and new generation alternatives in an Article VII application was a “fatal flaw.”

“It could be,” said PSC representative Paul Agresta. “You’re leaving yourself open for a denial if you leave out that information.”

When Seward asked www.evesun.com/topics/news/NYRI/">NYRI representatives if the company had supplied any such alternatives, Attorney Leonard Singer replied, “They have not.”

The panel heard testimony from four local representatives who shed some new light on the possible outcomes specific to communities and businesses along NYRI’s power line.

Brian O’Shaugnessy, CEO of Revere Copper Products in Rome, said this project would deal a fatal blow to his thriving, high-electric-use business that is already hampered by what he said is an upstate energy constraint. “This would throw me out of business,” O’Shaugnessy said. “We could not survive in this location.” According to him, significant voltage drops occur at his business on peak days such as yesterday, and that the New York Independent System Operator, in charge of managing the grid, frequently asks him to shut down his operation so they can secure energy for other populations.

“Here is a perfect example of what goes on behind the scenes in our region,” said Meier in response to O’Shaugnessy’s testimony. “So much for the surplus.”