Protesters call on Washington, Spitzer to reconsider corridor

NEW YORK CITY –  With their calls also directed toward Albany, a group of area residents are in New York City today protesting the New York Regional Interconnect power line and a federal law that would give an added boost to the $1.6 billion project.

“Our plan is to make a fuss,” said Earlville resident Eve Ann Shwartz. “We hope to bring the message from the citizens of upstate New York that this is not an appropriate exercise of the federal government’s power.”

Over two dozen members of Stop NYRI, a citizens group representing Chenango and Madison counties, are meeting with two other anti-power line groups to demonstrate outside a U.S. Department of Energy hearing in Manhattan. The hearing is addressing the department’s controversial draft designation of 47 counties in New York state as part of a massive National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor. Power line projects within the corridor – which includes www.evesun.com/topics/news/NYRI/">NYRI’s – could be pushed through by the federal government even if they are denied at the state level.

“We are turning our sites on Gov. Spitzer and Attorney General (Andrew) Cuomo. They need to step up to the plate,” said Shwartz, the co-chair of Stop NYRI. “I can’t believe they’d let the federal government take over this (power line) decision making.”

The federal government, guided by the 2005 Energy Policy Act, can override New York state authority in power line siting if a proposal has been under review for longer than a year, if it has been approved with unfair conditions, or even if it has been denied by the state Public Service Commission. NYRI’s project has not began an official review.

Shwartz, who has been allowed two minutes of testimony at the hearing, contends that both the size of the corridor and NYRI’s project are overkill solutions to metropolitan New York’s energy problems, which could be solved through conservation efforts, existing electricity grid upgrades and less intrusive transmission projects.