Anti-power line group hires law firm

One member expresses reservations

By FRITZ MAYER

NEW YORK STATE — Communities Against Regional Interconnect (CARI), a group of politicians and activists that has come together to fight the power line project in New York State, has hired a law firm to represent them in the permitting process before the New York Public Service Commission. The firm is Gilberti Stinziano Heintz and Smith, P.C. William Gilberti, chairman and founder of the firm’s land use group, is “one of the foremost authorities on environmental law,” according to information from the firm.

CARI is made up of elected representatives of the eight counties through which the New York Regional Interconnect (NYRI) lines would pass, as well as the Upper Delaware Council (UDC), the Upper Delaware Preservation Coalition (UDPC) and Stop NYRI. Chris Cunningham, Sullivan County legislative chair, is the group’s chair.

UDC Executive Director William Douglass said the law firm has strong experience in environmental impact analysis, which he believes will be paramount in stopping the 200-mile power line project. The firm also has experience with eminent domain cases.

However, Pat Carullo, a UDPC founder, expressed concern because the firm has helped clients gain approval for large energy projects for decades.

Douglass said that other CARI board members expressed the same concern, but concluded that it was best to hire a firm that had intimate knowledge of energy issues, even if it was from the other side.

Carullo was additionally disappointed that the firm did not address that part of the process that might take place in Washington D.C. involving the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in its presentation to CARI on June 20 in Albany. Carullo said the presentation was focused on defeating the project in Albany. If the project is stopped on the state level, there is a possibility that the state agencies could be overridden through the National Interest Electricity Transmission Corridor (NIETC) provisions of the federal Energy Policy Act of 2005.

Douglass said it was his view that it is necessary for CARI to focus all its attention on getting the permit denied by the PSC in Albany at this time. If and when that happens, and he believes it is possible, CARI would then turn its attention to the unfolding process in Washington. In the meantime, he said he was reassured that Congressman Maurice Hinchey, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Senator Charles Schumer are monitoring NIETC developments.

Douglass said that after interviewing three law firms and investigating others, Gilberti Stinziano Heintz and Smith was the one that rose to the top.

The UDPC lawyer

The UDPC hired prominent environmental attorney Richard Lippes in the first week of May to mount a legal challenge to the NYRI project. Lippes said he would probably be talking with the other law firm, but the two firms would not formally be joining forces. Lippes said he was not interviewed to represent CARI, though he would have welcomed that. He said he has “put together a pretty good legal team” to try to halt the power line project. Carullo said the UDPC is still getting donations from the public and would continue to pay Lippes as long as the funds hold out.