April 8, 2009
To Our Friends and Supporters:
On Monday, April 6, 2009, New York Regional Interconnect (NYRI) sent a letter to the New York Public Service Commission (PSC) administrative law judge Jeffrey Stockholm officially announcing that we were suspending our participation in the PSC's Article VII process.
We were disappointed to have to make this decision after nearly five years working on this project. But we had no choice.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on March 31 denied our request to review the rules it recently approved for transmission tariffs of the New York State Independent System Operator (NYISO). We requested this review because, if left to stand, the NYISO rules would create an unacceptable financial risk for NYRI's investors. The subsequent FERC denial of our request kept the rules in place, creating a situation where even if our project were to be sited by the PSC, NYRI would face the prospect of being unable to recover its costs for the transmission line.
We know that our friends and supporters of the project are as disappointed and surprised as we are in this turn of events.
However, we nonetheless want to warmly acknowledge the support and friendships we have gained during this process from a wide variety of individuals, organizations and elected officials. We particularly want to thank for their support:
- U.S. Members of Congress Peter King, Ed Towns, Michael McMahon and Yvette Clarke
Organized labor's support through Unions for Jobs and the Environment - Veterans groups through organizations such as Vets-Help.org Inc.
- All the professionals on the NYRI team -- engineers, economists, legal counsel - everyone who worked diligently on this worthy project.
- All of the individual citizens who expressed their support for NYRI through our Web site and in personal communications
We thank all of you for standing by us and for sharing our belief in the need to upgrade New York's electric grid. As you know, the US Department of Energy has found that transmission congestion in New York is a large part of the reason why New Yorkers pay among the highest rates for electricity in the U.S.
Our upgrade would have helped to relieve the well-documented congestion in the system and, as a result, increase reliability and contribute to lower electric costs for ratepayers across the state. Likewise disappointing to all of us is the loss of jobs and taxes that our project would have brought to the state.
You also shared our conviction, often reiterated as well by President Obama, that if New York and the country are going to meet their goals to increase the use of clean, renewable sources of energy, such as wind power, transmission upgrades like the one we proposed, are necessary to carry that clean power to market.
We all look forward to a time in the near future when our critical needs for clean, affordable and efficient generation and delivery of energy will be responsibly met.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Chris Thompson, President
New York Regional Interconnect
This email was sent to legislat...@hvc.rr.com by in...@nyri.us.
New York Regional Interconnection | 100 State Street | Suite 1033 | Albany | NY | 12207
