|
NORWICH - Upstate New Yorkers will pay moreStar photo by Julie Lewis New York state Sen. Thomas Libous, R-Binghamton, asks a question during a Senate hearing about the proposed NYRI power-line project at Norwich High School on Thursday. Sen. David Valesky is on the left, and Sen. James Wright and Sen. James Seward are on the right. for electricity while people downstate will pay less if a power line proposed by New York Regional Interconnect is built, company officials said Thursday night in Norwich.
Their testimony came before several hundred people in the Norwich High School gymnasium as the state's Senate Energy and Telecommunications Committee held a hearing on the project.
Eleven people testified at the hearing, and several were questioned by a panel that included state Sens. James Seward, R-Milford; Thomas Libous, R-Binghamton; Raymond Meier, R-Western, and Energy Committee Chairman James Wright.
Three company consultants, lawyer Leonard Singer, project manager William May and regulatory manager Robert Malecki, testified, telling a silent crowd that their project would boost the wholesale cost of electricity in upstate New York an average of 5 percent while lowering costs downstate.
Singer said the project would save state residents $11.7 billion over 20 years. When questioned by Meier, he said the savings would be realized by customers in the New York City area and on Long Island.
Singer said the average customer of the New York State Electric & Gas Corp. would see an increase of 95 cents a month. Seward asked how much this would cost the upstate region, and May said the region would have to pay about $166 million annually.
Seward pressed company officials on whether they intended to take people's property via eminent domain to build their line, which would run from Marcy in Oneida County to New Windsor in Orange County.
Singer said NYRI hopes not to take land this way, "But I'm not saying we won't use it."
Seward asked, "How is it that a private, for-profit company has the right of eminent domain?"
Singer said NYRI had incorporated last year as a transportation company, and the New York state government gives transportation companies this right.
"Well, this is one senator who intends to close that loophole," Seward said to much applause.
Company spokesman Jonathan Pierce has said NYRI is a group of investors who do not want to reveal their identities. None of the investors testified Thursday.
The company employees there said they were paid by NYRI, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Colmac NYRI, Inc. Half of Colmac NYRI Inc. is owned by American Consumer Industries, which has its headquarters in Toronto, Canada, and the other half is owned by private investors, they said in response to questions from Libous.
Previously, it was disclosed that the president of NYRI is Richard Muddiman, a Canadian, who for years has been trying to promote a similar power line.
Libous asked Singer, May and Malecki to find out and provide the names of officers and investors in the companies behind the project to the Senate Energy Committee.
The biggest cheers of the night were reserved for Eve Ann Shwartz, of Earlville, and Dr. Lawrence Rosenblum, a radiologist who lives in Norwich.
Shwartz is a spokeswoman for Stop NYRI, a group of residents in Chenango and Madison counties who have organized to research and stop the project.
NYRI officials have been "deceitful and misleading," she said. "When they were asked in Norwich whether they would use the right of eminent domain, they said 'no,' and I know, because I asked the question."
Shwartz closed her remarks with, "In this election year, I call on each of you, whether you are running for state or federal office, to pledge to your constituents that you will do everything in your power to stop the NYRI project ... We will support you if you support us. We will defeat NYRI and any politicians who support the NYRI project."
Even louder were the cheers for Rosenblum, who said scientific studies show living near high-voltage power lines dramatically increases the risk of developing cancer, particularly childhood leukemia.
Although this power line would have a right of way that extends 75 feet on either side of transmission lines, exposure to electromagnetic fields that can cause cancer at the perimeter would be far greater than levels considered safe, he said.
"Even at 200 feet out, exposure would be 28.75 times the level considered minimally safe," he said.
Rosenblum said that if the power line follows its alternate route, through the city of Norwich, it will expose "100 percent of the city's residents to unsafe levels."
"But it will only expose 50 percent of our children to unsafe levels if it follows the River Road," which is the company's primary route, he added.
|
