The year of the power line battles

NYRI project brings an alphabet soup of agencies, laws and citizen groups

By FRITZ MAYER

NEW YORK STATE — It was the first week in April when a company called New York Regional Interconnect (NYRI) announced plans to build a 200-mile power line from Utica to Orange County. The company said it would run its huge wires through Sullivan County, either next to the Delaware River, with a short hop along the Pennsylvania side of the river, or through the interior of Sullivan County.

Almost immediately, groups opposed to the project sprang up or became active in communities spanning the length of the proposed route. In the river valley, the Upper Delaware Preservation Coalition (UDPC) and the Upper Delaware Council (UDC) mobilized. In the Utica area, STOPNYRI.com was born; in Norwich it was Stop NYRI, Inc. In Orange County, residents formed the Upstate New York Citizen’s Alliance (UNYCA). Politicians from the eight targeted counties also formed a group, in conjunction with concerned citizens, called Communities Against Regional Interconnect (CARI), which was chaired by Sullivan County Chairman Chris Cunningham.

During this time, local politicians and residents started to learn about energy legislation passed by the federal government in 2005. Because of the legislation, the Department of Energy (DOE) now had broad new powers in the placement of power lines. The DOE could declare the area a National Interest Electricity Transmission Corridor (NIETC).

If the DOE declared an NIETC, which encompassed the route proposed by NYRI, the rules for sighting power lines would be significantly altered.

As in the past, to get the power line built, NYRI would need to get approval from the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC). But if a year passed, and the PSC and NYRI could not make progress toward permitting the project, the Federal Regulatory Commission (FERC) would have the authority to override the PSC and grant permits to allow the power line project to go forward.

As it happened, NYRI did apply to DOE for an early designation of an NIETC in New York. However, officials at DOE decided not to grant any early NIETC designations anywhere in the country; the agency is still working out the details about how the designation process is going to work.

NYRI, meanwhile, moved forward at the state level, and filed an application with the PSC in May. In July, the PSC told NYRI the agency needed additional information about the project. Then in November, the PSC told NYRI that beyond the additional information already requested, the company must also provide studies of alternate power line routes, including one that would run parallel to the existing Marcy South power lines, and a route that would run along the New York State Thruway.

As NYRI moved forward, the opposition groups put up opposition that was visible enough to prompt governor-elect Elliot Spitzer at one point to call the power line project “dead.”

The possibility remains, however, that the DOE could name the region an NIETC. Then if the PSC blocks NYRI, FERC may step in and push the lines through, prompting an angry response from the UDPC, the UDC, the UNYCA, CARI, STOPNYRI.com and StopNYRI Inc.