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Environmental and health groups Wednesday called on New York lawmakers to mandate more investment in the state's energy-transmission system and offer more incentives for alternative power sources.
The massive Aug. 14 blackout shouldn't automatically trigger a power-plant building spree, activists said at a news conference held while Gov. George Pataki talked about the electricity grid and other issues with legislative leaders.
The state Senate is set to return to the Capitol next week, but only to pass a toxic-waste cleanup bill and act on various Pataki nominations. There has been talk about the Senate and Assembly returning later in the fall, if agreements can be worked out on any issues, including a megamall in Syracuse and energy generation and transmission.
"I think the Assembly will be back at some point before the end of the year," Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, said after an hour-long meeting with Pataki and Senate Leader Joseph Bruno.
Environmental groups said leaders should upgrade the power system, following last month's blackout that saw about 90 percent of New York's electricity customers lose power at some point. They cited official warnings going back months before the blackout that lack of investment in the transmission system threatened power delivery.
"Some of it is a matter of simple repairs for ailing equipment," said Jason Babbie of the New York Public Interest Research Group. "This is a decades-old distribution system. It's sort of like driving a car that's decades old."
That doesn't necessarily mean the transmission system is to blame, said a spokesman for the state Public Service Commission.
"There is no evidence to date to suggest that the presence of more transmission lines would've prevented the blackout," said PSC spokesman Dave Flanagan.
Congress is investigating the causes of the blackout, but the New York Assembly and the state Public Service Commission have launched separate inquiries about how the grid reacted.
An official with the trade group that represents utility companies said the delivery system could be expanded. But this is just one of many debates triggered by the outage, said Howard Shapiro, head of the Energy Association.
"Every one who has an ax to grind in the energy area has pulled out their agenda and focused on that agenda rather than on what happened Aug. 14," Shapiro said.
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