New York Lawmakers, Environmentalists Face Off on Green Power

The Buffalo News, N.Y. - June 17, 2004

Environmentalists Wednesday praised a proposal that would require a quarter of electricity purchased in New York to come from renewable energy sources, but local business officials worried that the requirement could drive up power prices.

And while the environmentalists supported exclusion of garbage-burning plants from the list of recommended renewable energy sources, an American Ref-Fuel official said it made no sense to omit that power generation method, which already produces more than 300 megawatts of electricity in the state.

The proposal, recommended by an administrative law judge, calls for increased use of electricity generated from renewable sources, including solar, tidal, fuel cells, hydroelectric, biomass and landfill gases.

Supporters of the proposal, which is being reviewed by the state Public Service Commission, said the increased reliance on renewable energy sources would make New York's power supplies less dependent on fossil fuels and would produce major health benefits by reducing pollution.

"We believe they are more environmentally sustainable than the fossil fuels we currently are depending on," said Robert Knoer, the chairman of the Wind Action Group, a local organization that supports the development of wind power. "We believe renewable sources are going to help us achieve energy independence."

Knoer, one of more than 20 people who spoke during a two-hour PSC hearing on the proposal, said a push for renewable energy sources could help the Buffalo Niagara region capitalize on its lakeside location, which makes it attractive as a site for wind-powered generating facilities.

"We have a great natural resource here in wind," he said. "We believe that capturing that resource will help us, not only environmentally, but economically."

Supporters said the proposal would help the struggling upstate economy by spurring the construction and development of new power plants that would create thousands of jobs throughout the region as electricity suppliers scramble to meet the proposed renewable energy target.

New York currently gets about 19 percent of its electricity from renewable sources, mostly from the New York Power Authority's Niagara Power Project and a smaller hydro plant on the St. Lawrence River. The increased standard would be phased in through either 2013 or 2015, with a mid-course review of the targets in 2008.

"Nothing is cleaner than wind and sun," said Walter Simpson, the co-chairman of the Western New York Sustainable Energy Association. "If nothing else, the proposal does not go far enough and fast enough."

But critics worried that the proposal would force consumers and businesses in New York to get more of their electricity from power sources that currently are not competitive economically.

"If renewable sources of energy were indeed competitive, the private sector would already be building such capacity," said Kevin Schuler, vice president of government affairs for the Buffalo Niagara Partnership, the region's largest business advocacy group.

"Instead, a few heavily subsidized entrepreneurs stand to make a bundle by introducing a more costly product into the marketplace that utilities are forced to buy," he said.

Adopting the recommendations could lead to higher electricity prices, the report said. Residential electric bills could rise by as much as 1.8 percent, while commercial bills could go up as much as 2 percent and industrial customers could pay up to 2.4 percent more, the report estimated.

Higher prices could cause significant job losses in an already fragile upstate economy, Schuler warned.

PSC officials also said the higher costs of renewable energy sources could be offset by a reduced reliance on higher-priced fossil fuels. If that happens, estimated residential bills could go down slightly.

Jeffrey D. Williams, a Niagara Mohawk spokesman, also raised concerns that the increased reliance on wind power, which is dependent on wind conditions, could cut the overall reliability of the state's power grid.

Ann Reynolds, a spokeswoman for Environmental Advocates of New York, praised the proposal for excluding garbage-burning plants from the list of recommended renewable sources. "Those plants are no cleaner than the coal plants we're trying to improve upon," she said.

But a spokesman for American Ref-Fuel, which runs a trash-burning plant in Niagara Falls, said waste-burning facilities reduce the need for landfill space and have made great strides in meeting pollution standards.

The proposal would reduce pollution, cutting nitrogen oxide emissions statewide by almost 7 percent, sulfur dioxide emissions by 6 percent and carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 8 percent.

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