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The New York Public Service Commission issued a new order a week and a half ago giving the Cayuga Power Plant and New York State Electric & Gas Corp. (NYSEG) 30 days to submit a new plan for repowering the coal-fired plant.  Opponents of repowering the plant were quick to rally against this new development.  Attorneys for the Sierra Club, and Earthjustice filed a motion Wednesday seeking a rehearing by PSC and to delay the 30 day process PSC has set in motion.

"It is respectfully submitted that the parties to this proceeding and the public deserve – and are legally entitled to – a more open and accessible decision-making process on issues that have such profound rate and environmental implications for the people of New York," the motion reads.  "The Moving Parties therefore request that the Commission grant rehearing and stay the Notice pending a final determination of this motion. The Moving Parties further request that the Notice be withdrawn until answers to the important questions raised above have been provided to the public."

The motion was filed on behalf of the Ratepayer and Community Intervenors, Citizens Campaign for the Environment, and Environmental Advocates of New York (the 'Moving Parties'), which includes local and wider area groups.  Representatives including Earthjustice Attorney Christopher Amato, Sierra Club's Jennifer Tuttle,  Tompkins County Legislator Carol Chock, Town of Caroline Council member Irene Weiser and Environmental Advocates of New York's Conor Bambrick, held a press conference yesterday to protest what they called proceedings by the PSC that 'has been characterized by secrecy and widespread public confusion'.  They requested the PSC withdraw its request for a revised proposal to repower the Cayuga coal-fired power plant with gas.

“We who live in the electric service area whose rates and environment will be affected by a decision submitted our comments over the summer, expecting they would be taken into account. Instead, we learned that the staff and commission are proceeding as though we don't matter. The ratepaying public deserves better from the agency charged with protecting our interests,” said Chock.

Although the public comment period  concluded August 16th, opponents of repowering the plant have continued to provide input to PSC, advocating, among other things, for the release of un-redacted documents provided by NYSEG and the power plant.  Prior to that time plant officials had submitted four alternative plans for repowering the coal-fired plant with natural gas and NYSEG had put forward one plan to close the plant and upgrade the power transmission lines instead.  In late July more than 600 people attended a public hearing at the Lansing Middle School auditorium, many of them speaking in favor of one or the other of the plans, or in favor of neither with an eye to alternative, renewable energy sources.

Upstate New York Power Producers CEO Jerry Goodenough still hopes the plant will be a part of New York's Energy Highway plan as the PSC continues its deliberations.  Goodenough has argued that ht least expensive of the four plans put forth by the power plant would save ratepayer money, and says the plant will comply with the new order.

"We will continue to work with NYSEG and the PSC meet the needs stated in the order," he says.  "We have put forth a project that meets the reliability needs, retains jobs and local economic interests, and meets the needs of the rate payers."

The PSC has told plant officials they intend to make a decision by the end of this year.  PSC Commissioners make the final determination as to the plant's closing or repowering.

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