NYRI takes part in PSC hearings

NORWICH – Parties involved in the New York Regional Interconnect power line case met Tuesday with representatives from the Albany-based company in front of a judge with the New York state Public Service Commission, as part of mediation hearings scheduled for the coming month.

NYRI’s Article VII power line citing application was turned-away by the PSC in July because it was ruled deficient of a number of necessary pieces of information. The upcoming hearings are aimed at gathering the parties’ opinions, and having some of the required information disclosed. Until www.evesun.com/topics/news/NYRI/">NYRI’s application is fully supplemented, the power line developer’s project will remain ineligible for review, according to PSC law.

“The purposes of this conference are to adopt ground rules and a schedule for this mediation process,” states a Jan. 16 PSC press release, “and to discuss and clarify the proposals tendered on January 8, 2007 by New York Regional Interconnect Inc. concerning scope and methodology for studies or analysis of routing alternatives, potential cumulative impacts, visual impact analysis, and threatened and endangered species.”

A representative of the PSC said the results of Tuesday’s hearing are at this point confidential.

“So far, if anything, the judge (Eleanor Stein) will issue an order in regards to the specifics discussed at the mediation sessions,” said Director of Public Affairs James A. Denn in a phone interview with The Evening Sun. “Those sessions are confidential to give the parties an opportunity to express themselves freely.”