County still in running for wind power project

LOCKPORT — Niagara County is still in the running for a $1 billion wind power project the New York Power Authority plans to bid out next month, authority President Richard M. Kessel said last week.

Kessel made the statement after a flap at Tuesday’s County Legislature meeting over a report from the county’s Albany lobbying firm, Capitol Public Strategies.

The firm, in an e-mail to legislators, reported that its effort to set up a meeting about the project with Power Authority staffers was “delayed due to litigation.”

The county is suing the Power Authority in an effort to invalidate the “sweep” earlier this year of $544 million in Power Authority surpluses into the state’s general fund in an effort to balance the state’s recession-wracked budget. The county’s suit asserts that the money ought to be sent back to the authority, but only long enough for it to be used to provide rebates for Niagara County electric customers.

The e-mail from the lobbying firm came after State Supreme Court Justice Ralph A. Boniello III ruled Oct. 7 against a Power Authority effort to transfer the lawsuit to a judge in Albany. Boniello said the case will stay with him in Niagara Falls.

The county put out a news release to crow over the procedural ruling, portraying it as a blow to the Power Authority to keep the case before Boniello, a former Niagara County attorney, instead of placing it with an Albany judge whom the county presumed would be friendlier to the Power Authority.

Legislator Renae Kimble, D-Niagara Falls, was among the county lawmakers perturbed by the lobbyist’s report.

“This does not bode well in terms of a better relationship between the New York Power Authority and Niagara County,” Kimble said.

Kessel called the lobbyist’s e-mail “completely inaccurate. . . . I don’t know who the lobbyist is or what they said.”

“That litigation is irrelevant to our relationship with that Legislature,” Kessel said, noting that he appeared for an hour before the Legislature in Lockport July 28.

However, on that occasion he declined to talk about the sweep or the lawsuit, which was the main thing the Legislature wanted to discuss.

Kessel criticized the county for allegedly failing to respond to a letter he sent last spring, asking the county to become involved in the wind farm project. “No one contacted me to talk about the project,” he said.

Next month, the authority will seek proposals from companies interested in building the wind power project, which is to be located somewhere offshore in Lake Erie or Lake Ontario.

Kessel said any suitable location from Ripley to the Thousand Islands could be considered.

“We’re in the middle of a competitive process right now,” Kessel said. “I’m open to meeting with the Niagara Legislature anytime on this or any other topic.”

Kimble said Lake Ontario is better for wind because it’s deeper than Lake Erie and never freezes.

“This would be a catalyst for many good jobs in Niagara County,” Kimble said. “This is a tremendous opportunity for us.”