Archive: Opinions

I am responding to the 8/21 Lansing Star article regarding the Caroline Town Board meddling in Lansing business.  The attached Caroline Town Board resolution has little mention of the Town of Lansing except to urge financial support from a $19M State fund created to support of communities affected by the closing of a power plant and ensure that NYSEG timely details the projects in Lansing that fit within the scope of REV and will support the local economy.  The resolution has everything to do with the Town of Caroline, its residents, and all NYSEG rate payers, and for that matter all humans living and to be born.

The Caroline resolution speaks to the $9.6M annual bailout by NYSEG rate payers to prop up a financially unsustainable venture. It also speaks to the recommendation by PSC staff to upgrade transmission lines regardless of whether Cayuga operates or not.  And most importantly it speaks to taking the necessary steps to stop combusting fossil fuel.  Therefore the Caroline Town Board told the Public Service Commission that it supported the transmission upgrade that mitigated environmental impacts.

Combusting any fossil fuel changes the atmosphere chemistry to retain heat.  This warmer atmosphere adds more energy to every weather event, creating more frequent extreme events resulting in warmer and colder winters, extended droughts, and heavier downpours. The 8/21/15 Ithaca Journal reported that July 2015 was the hottest month ever recorded and the 365th straight month with above average temperature. Today the taxpayers of Caroline, Lansing, and all neighboring towns and counties are bearing significant cost to repair infrastructure damaged by extraordinary erosion, winter snow and ice removal, additional heating and cooling costs.  Our citizens are paying higher prices for food which results from producers struggling against their own weather challenges.

The Town of Caroline has taken action to eliminate its use of fossil fuel in its office building.  The Caroline Town Board has gone on record recognizing that climate change is upon us and continued release of combustion gases into the atmosphere exacerbates an already costly situation.

Contrary to the perception that Caroline is meddling into another town’s affairs, the Caroline Town Board is advocating for Caroline and for a community that works together for the health, safety, and well-being of its citizens and not a corporation.

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RESOLUTION OPPOSING THE REPOWERING OF CAYUGA POWER PLANT WITH NATURAL GAS (12-E-0577) AND SUPPORTING AUBURN TRANSMISSION UPGRADES (13-T-0235)

WHEREAS in January 2013 the Public Service Commission (PSC) began a proceeding (12-E-0577) to analyze repowering the Cayuga Power Plant as an alternative to Auburn transmission system upgrades; and

WHEREAS the PSC has announced a public comment period ending August 24, 2015 regarding the merits of Cayuga’s February 6th revised repowering proposal versus New York State Electric and Gas’ (NYSEG’s) February 6th proposal for transmission line upgrades in Auburn; and

WHEREAS Cayuga proposes to convert the 60-year-old, 300 megawatt plant to use natural gas fuel on both operating units, while retaining the ability to burn coal on one operating unit, and the conversion will cost NYSEG customers $49.5 million for construction, plus $9.6 million per year for ten years to subsidize the plant’s operation (total $145 million) ; and

WHEREAS NYSEG’s proposal for Auburn transmission upgrades, considered at PSC 13-T-0235 for a certificate of environmental compatibility and public need, will cost approximately $55 million and it is the sworn testimony of the Department of Public Service’s Power Systems Operations Specialist that Auburn transmission upgrades will be needed by 2020 regardless of whether the Cayuga Plant is repowered ; and

WHEREAS if the Cayuga plant is repowered, 30 workers will lose their jobs, 30 will be retained and the plant will continue to pay property taxes; and if the transmission upgrades are made and the plant closes, 60 plant workers will lose their jobs  and $1.8 million in property tax revenue will be lost; and

WHEREAS if the State keeps fossil-fuel burning power plants open because of the impact closing them will have on the economy of the communities where the plant resides the State’s energy policy cannot advance; and

WHEREAS the 2014 Fifth Assessment Report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change finds that climate change is a result of fossil fuel combustion and other human activities, and that it poses a serious threat to human and natural systems that calls for immediate actions to curtail greenhouse gas emissions; and

WHEREAS the impact to the local tax base from plant closure pales in comparison to the cataclysmic impact continued reliance on fossil fuels has for the planet; and extreme weather events associated with climate change such as Superstorm Sandy, Hurricaine Irene, Tropical Storm Lee and many localized flash flooding events have already added greatly to the tax burden locally, statewide and nationally; and

WHEREAS continued fossil fuel burning at the Cayuga Power Plant is contrary to the State’s commitment to Reform the Energy Vision by promoting development of distributed power generation, demand response, microgrids and energy efficiency, with stated goals including reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the costs of electricity;  and

WHEREAS the PSC notes that one of the major expenses of our current electric system is for maintaining idle power plants that are utilized for only a few hundred hours of peak demand time per year - as is proposed for the Cayuga plant - but now technological developments have made alternative methods of managing and satisfying demand more feasible and less costly ; and

WHEREAS NYSEG has nominated Tompkins County for demonstration projects that would enable the area to be early adopters of such newer technologies , and has proposed working with the State to develop REV initiatives to ease the transition for the Lansing economy;  and

WHEREAS in the final legislation of the 2015 legislative session a budget provision was made to establish a fund to support the local tax base upon closing of a power plant and $19 million was appropriated to that fund;

Now therefore be it

RESOLVED that the Caroline Town Board opposes the repowering of Cayuga Power Plant to burn fossil fuels (12-E-0577), and supports the proposal for all necessary and environmentally compatible transmission upgrades (13-T-0235); and be it further

RESOLVED that the Caroline Town Board calls on the Governor to provide support for job training for the plant workers and financial support for Tompkins County, the Town of Lansing and the Lansing School District to mitigate the tax impact losing the plant will have on the community; and be it further

RESOLVED that the Caroline Town Board asks the PSC to ensure that NYSEG timely details the development of projects in Lansing that fit within the scope of REV and will support the local economy; and be it further

RESOLVED that the Town Clerk will send a certified copy of this resolution to: Honorable Kathleen H. Burgess, Secretary, Public Service Commission, 3 Empire State Plaza, Albany, New York 12223-1350, (518) 474-6530; Honorable Audrey Zibelman, Chair, Public Service Commission; Governor Andrew Cuomo; Mr. Richard Kauffman, Chairman of Energy and Finance for New York in the Governor’s office, Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton, Senator James Seward, members of the Tompkins County Legislature and the Town of Lansing town board.

Don Barber
Town of Caroline
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