Citizen groups still fighting NYRI by FRITZ MAYER

UPPER DELAWARE RIVER VALLEY— When the man who will become the next governor of New York State says a project is dead, people tend to take him at his word. Last week, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said the proposed project to build a 190-mile power line through eight New York counties was dead because there was too much opposition to it.

Just a few weeks earlier on September 30, the current governor, George Pataki, signed legislation that would prevent the company who wants to build the project, New York Regional Interconnect (NYRI), from using eminent domain to acquire land for the project. Pataki said the new law would make it “virtually impossible” to build the power line.

These two events have made fundraising more difficult for citizen groups who have been fighting the NYRI project. At a meeting of the Upper Delaware Preservation Coalition (UDPC) on November 2 at the Inn at Lackawaxen, Lackawaxen, PA, about a dozen people turned up to hear the latest developments in the effort; about 300 people turned up at a meeting in the same location in May.

UDPC officials are concerned that the public has been lulled into a false sense of security about the prospects of the powerline.

Pat Carullo, president of the UDPC, said the group’s lawyers said that the law Pataki signed is very likely to be overturned. There was speculation among the group that NYRI would wait until after the election to challenge the law. UDPC treasurer Troy Bystrom said that the statements from Pataki and Spitzer did not take into account the reality that any decision made at the state level could be overridden at the federal level. (A spokesman for Spitzer told the Norwich Evening Sun on November 2 that Spitzer’s remarks were “pure speculation based on the public and political opposition New York Regional Interconnect Inc. has confronted thus far.”)

In the meantime, the New York Public Service Commission (PSC) is awaiting a reply from NYRI executives after asking for amendments to the NYRI power line application. It is not clear when NYRI will forward those amendments; however NYRI executives have made it clear that they will not abandon the project.

Citizens groups are taking NYRI at their word, and they continue to strategize about how best to halt the project. Four such groups have formed a loose alliance toward that shared goal. The groups are the Upstate New York Citizens Alliance in Utica, NY, STOPNYRI.com STOPNYRI.com in Norwich, NY, the UDPC in the Upper Delaware River Valley and SAY NO 2 NYRI in Otisville, NY. Among other initiatives, the groups are working on a common legal strategy. The UDPC hired attorney Richard Lippes in May. Lippes has worked on other high-profile environmental cases such as Love Canal and Three Mile Island. Two weeks ago, STOPNYRI.com STOPNYRI.com announced it was also hiring Lippes and the other two groups are considering the same move.

The citizens groups, in turn, are connected to Communities Against Regional Interconnect (CARI), which is made up of county and state lawmakers, as well as residents, and is chaired by Chris Cunningham, Chairman of the Sullivan County Legislature. Bystrom said the citizen groups serve as a sort-of “back channel communications network” for the CARI group. Additionally, the groups overlap. For instance, attorney Eve Anne Schwarz, who has taken over as the legal point person for UDPC and STOPNYRI.com, is also on the legal committee of CARI.

A national concern

But the concern about the future of power lines and the energy industry in this country is not limited to eight counties in New York State. One of the biggest sparks for community resistance in the Upper Delaware River Valley was that part of the line’s route would run through land that would otherwise be protected because it is part of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System.

The Energy Act of 2005, however, provides for the creation of National Interest Electronic Transmission Corridors (NIETC), which might allow for the construction of power lines in the protected river area, as well as other protected areas such as national parks. This has led to national concern among environmentalists.

On September 30, Bystrom gave a presentation about NYRI to members of the Sierra Club at the Pocono Environmental Education Center in Dingmans Ferry, PA. The Sierra Club’s national organization is supporting efforts to stop the NYRI project.

Bystrom has also been in contact with the Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC), which is battling the construction of new power line projects in Virginia. Energy companies there have requested three NIETCS, which, according to the PEC, would run through “44 state and national historic sites and six Civil War battlefields.”

The NIETC provision has also sparked interest from academia. Students from the Columbia University Law Clinic have submitted comments to the Department of Energy regarding the establishment of NIETCs, and other students from the university’s Earth Institute/Urban Lab have visited the Upper Delaware River Valley to look at the environmental impacts of existing power lines, as well as those proposed by NYRI.