04/15/06
Power plans won’t proceed without a fight
If energy is the overriding issue of the 21st century, then this region is being set up as one of the early battlegrounds in our struggles to get more power to where it is consumed and to expand renewable sources of electricity.
Between proposals for windmills, a wood-burning power plant and a high-voltage transmission line, we’re snared in debates about alternative energy, electricity consumption, property rights and NIMBYs.
Those who say it’s bad timing to be dealing with all these proposals in the same region simultaneously are right. We should have tackled the issues three decades ago after the first energy crisis. If we had, perhaps the problems — and the snags — would have been be solved by now.
As it is, we’re still driving around in big cars and we’ve continued to fill our homes with ever- more products that voraciously inhale electricity, while giving lip service to environmental causes and conservation.
And now we’re being asked to pay the price — not only with our wallets but also with our backyards.
The Power Line
It seems that every time downstate needs something, this region has to pay — if not in stifling watershed regulations, then with power-line swaths cut through our hills and valleys.
And now another power line is being proposed to feed yet more electricity to the bottomless energy appetites of the downstate metro region. There has to be a better way and we have to make sure there is another way.
New York Regional Interconnect Inc. of Albany wants to build a $1 billion, 400-kilovolt power-transmission line from the town of Marcy, north of Utica, to the town of New Windsor in Orange County. Officials at the firm say the line is needed to provide more electricity to New York City and Long Island.
The line, which would be similar to the controversial Marcy-South line that bisected Otsego and Delaware counties in the 1980s, would run through eastern Chenango County and the towns of Deposit and Hancock in Delaware County.
As with the Marcy line, it would carry hydroelectric power from Quebec, which is supposed to appeal to our need to cut back on the use of fossil fuels and nuclear.
Some people near the proposed path have suggested the line be buried rather than strung between huge towers. That would help alleviate the problems of electromagnetic radiation and aesthetics. But NYRI says going underground would be too costly. The firm also says it would be too costly to follow the Thruway to downstate.
Obviously, this line isn’t going up — or even down — without a fight.
The Windmills
Wind power has been touted for decades as a viable supplement to oil and nukes as a source of energy. But detractors have insisted that wind was too unreliable and too many windmills would be required. That was then.
Advances in technology have permitted larger windmills with more-powerful generators so that increasing numbers are being built and put into production nationwide. In this area, windmills are becoming the energy issue of the decade, with proposals near Cherry Valley and the possibility of numerous sitings in Delaware County.
Most people believe wind power is a legitimate alternative energy, but, lo and behold, many don’t want to walk onto their front porches in the morning and see one of those huge contraptions twirling away up on a nearby hillside. Can you blame them?
But, on the other hand, where we gonna put those things if we can’t put them anywhere within human view?
I asked one of the officers at Reunion Power, which is proposing windmills in the Cherry Valley area, why they had to be white. If they were green or blue, perhaps they wouldn’t be so imposing. He said he didn’t foresee the color changing, without offering a good reason why.
Town after town in Delaware County is pursuing moratoriums on windmills. That, at least, will give everyone time to think — and probably fight.
The Wood-burning Power Plant
Using wood for power-plant fuel is a big improvement over coal, oil and Strontium-90. And with today’s technology, even the emissions can be made relatively safe.
Catalyst Renewables, however, is proposing to put a plant, smack dab, in the beautiful Susquehanna Valley, in the city of Oneonta’s rail-yard industrial park.
A good question is, as a community, why would we want a wood-burning power plant here. Despite its merits as an alternative energy source, shouldn’t it be put into a backyard where fewer people can see and hear it.
Smokestacks, woodchippers and log trucks for, what, 10 jobs and some truck drivers.
OK, the city needs to get something in its Empire Zone to boost its tax base. But is she so desperate for a mate that she’ll take the first ugly, belching, cigar-smoking guy who comes along?
We can do better than that.
It is unfortunate that many of the people who oppose these projects because of proximity, ethics or aesthetics have earned their stripes, so to speak. They have succeeded in limiting their use of oil and electricity.
As the issues play out, let’s stand aside and let them be heard.
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Cary Brunswick is managing editor of The Daily Star. He can be reached at (607) 432-1000, ext. 217, or cary@thedailystar.com.
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