Eminent domain still a long-term powerline question

NYRI files supplemental application with state

By FRITZ MAYER

ALBANY, NY — They say they don’t want to use eminent domain to acquire land for their project, but their actions suggest they will if they have to.

At a news conference on February 22, Leonard Singer, a lawyer for New York Regional Interconnection, Inc. (NYRI) told reporters, “We do not intend to take anyone’s property or their homes or their businesses.” He said the company is trying to move forward by obtaining easements and property rights.

The statement came as NYRI was unveiling details of its supplemental filing with the New York Public Service Commission (PSC), which the company had submitted to the agency a day earlier. The submission came just two weeks after the PSC declined to issue an opinion on whether or not it has the power to overrule a law, passed by the state in October 2006, which prohibits NYRI from using eminent domain.

In October 2007, a federal judge threw out a lawsuit filed by the company, which charged that the state law discriminated against NRYI and that it was unconstitutional.

In previous statements, representatives of the company have said it would be practically impossible for the project to move forward without eminent domain, therefore critics of the project speculate that the company is banking on acquiring the power from the federal government, once the project has run its course at the state level.

The supplemental filing

The submission includes a study of a new route for the powerline that would run largely parallel with the existing Marcy South lines that run through the center of Sullivan County. The study also includes some 16 alternatives for segments of the route, some of which run through the towns of Fremont, Delaware, Cochecton, Tusten, Highland and Lumberland. Some of the alternative routes run, for a way, along the route of the Millennium Pipeline, and others are newly listed partial routes.

NYRI has said it now has no interest in using the route that runs along the Upper Delaware River, but that remains part of the initial application filed in May 2006.

In the supplemental application, the company proposed burying 20 miles of the most controversial parts of the powerline, which would run through the Mongaup Wildlife area in Sullivan County, Otisville in Orange County and two areas near Utica.

The projected costs of burying portions of the line have bumped the overall project price up from $1.6 billion to $2 billion.

However, attempts to mitigate objections from critics have largely failed because opponents say, among other things, that the company has yet to prove there is a need for the new powerline.

Troy Bystrom of the Upper Delaware Preservation Coalition (UDPC) wrote in an email, “We are in the process of reviewing NYRI’s supplemental application to determine the impact of NYRI on the Upper Delaware River Region view shed and economy. UDPC will continue to oppose NYRI because we believe there are better energy solution alternatives. Stringing power lines across New York State should only be considered as a last resort. Based on how NYRI has handled this process so far, I am extremely skeptical that this project will bring any benefit to New York State or our region.”

The process now moves to the PSC, which will review the supplemental application, with a final determination on approval of the line months, or perhaps a year, away.