news from NYRI

[mary]

NYCO blog has some new information about NYRI. I check periodically
as she often summarizes the news stories.
See http://www.twentyfour01.com/nyco/


NYRI is finally getting ready to return to the PSC with its
application to build the DC power lines. They are going to include
alternative routes and some compromises. The power lines should start
getting some more media coverage.

New York City is in favor of the plan. Long Island papers have
editorialized for it. The PR work NYRI has been doing has been
working in their favor. We need to turn this around.


Here is one of the compromises it is offering in Orange County. NYRI
is not offering to bury the entire line but is willing to try to quiet
some of the opposition by offering some crumbs...

From: http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080206/NEWS/802060325

**********************************************************************************************
News
NYRI offers alternative
In new plan, power line would tunnel under Otisville
By Steve Israel
Times Herald-Record
February 06, 2008 6:00 AM

OTISVILLE -- This western Orange County village, which morphed into
ground zero for opposition to the huge power line that could slice our
region, may be spared the 10-story-tall towers that would dwarf it --
but not the line itself.

New York Regional Interconnect plans to run part of its 190-mile-long
line beneath this village of mom and pop shops, instead of through it
as originally planned. And as first reported in the Times Herald-
Record, NYRI has been forced by the Public Service Commission to offer
alternate routes, including one next to the existing Marcy-South power
lines and another along the New York Thruway.

This is according to a public notice NYRI filed in advance of
submitting its supplemental application to the Public Service
Commission.

Although the updated route is short on details -- and lacks the Thruway
alternative -- its original route appears largely intact. It still runs
through the Sullivan County towns of Fremont, Delaware and Cochecton,
along with Bethel, Tusten, Highland, Lumberland and Forestburgh --
although it moves away from the Delaware River. The line continues
into the Orange County towns of Deerpark, Wallkill, Mount Hope and
Hamptonburgh, before ending at the Rock Tavern substation in New
Windsor and Hamptonburgh.

But even though the line seems to veer beneath Otisville, the
underground option still causes major problems for its opponents.

"They'll still have to dig a huge trench through town and that could
take months and they would still own the land above it," said
Otisville's Gail Heatherly, a board member of the local SayNo2NYRI and
a representative of the statewide anti-power line organization,
Communities Against Regional Interconnect. A spokesman for NYRI said
he did not want to comment until the notice is published later this
week.

But another of NYRI's many opponents said that if the line had to be
built, following the existing Marcy-South route through Sullivan and
Orange might draw the least resistance -- even though it still would be
a huge mistake.

"NYRI isn't needed, period," said Troy Bystrom of the Upper Delaware
Preservation Coalition. "Both economically and environmentally, it's
still wrong."

sis...@th-record.com