It's Always Something . . .
Focused on such ground level (and below) issues as sewer separation, water mains, and Promenade Hill, Gossips hasn't had much to report about the "energy highway" proposed to carry electricity from "underused upstate plants" along monster power lines through the Hudson Valley to New York City and Long Island. Yesterday, the Poughkeepsie Journal reported on the current state of things: "Power line contenders in Mid-Hudson narrowed by state."
Starting out, four companies (or groups of companies)--New York Transmission, North American Transmission, Boundless Energy, and NextEra--had submitted a total of twenty-one different plans. The New York State Public Service Commission has now narrowed those down to seven: four from New York Transmission (a collaboration of transmission owners that includes National Grid and Central Hudson); two from Boundless Energy; and one from NextEra. The PSC continues to study the seven alternatives that made the cut. Later this month, there will be three days of technical conferences on the subject, on July 20, 21, and 31.
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Enid Futterman|imby.com |
For anyone who has not yet heard Gidon Eshel present the findings of his analysis of the need for the "energy highway," another opportunity comes tomorrow. He will be making the presentation at a public meeting organized by the Hudson Valley Smart Energy Coalition at the Pleasant Valley Town Hall. The meeting begins at 10:30 a.m.
COPYRIGHT 2015 CAROLE OSTERINK
The first plans had the transmission lines buried and crossing the City at 7th Street to following the train tracks down to the waterfront. That was the plan for months, and nobody in Hudson was aware of it until after the plan had already been changed.
ReplyDeleteA feature of the next plan was to bury the lines beneath the river between Athens and Mt. Merino.
The company with that plan, NextEra, was very enthusiastic about the idea when reached for comment, but couldn't understand why Hudson residents didn't seem to care in the least. The representative said that local support for the idea would go a long way towards implementing it.
Not long afterwards, having personally commented on the proposal in these threads (if anything, too much), the Common Council passed a Resolution in solidarity with the outlying municipalities who were fighting the power lines in their own areas.
Unfortunately, neither residents nor politicians recognized any value in placing the transmission lines out of sight, so the promise of a vastly improved view to the Catskills from Hudson never appeared in the Resolution.
Seventy-five years from now, people will have to wonder about us.