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mailmanTo Lansing Star Editor:

Thank you for covering the important PSC hearing about the re-powering of the Lansing Power plant.

Just to clarify, in my comments, I made very clear that I support keeping the Lansing plant open, and asked the PSC to do a feasibility study for a waste-to-energy plant here. I referenced the new Jacobson/Howarth’s Renewable New York 2030 Plan which, while urging we go renewable as soon as possible, allows for some biomass – for about 20 years -- as we transition to full renewables. I said that this is the perfect place for such a project, given the abundant farmland in our region and the likely need for greater capacity Upstate, as Climate Change makes our coastal areas less livable.  A biomass plant would retain jobs and help Lansing Schools and other municipalities.

I will work to try to bring RGGI or other state funding in to compensate for the possible lost revenues if the PSC closes the plant.  And I will continue to argue, as I have all along, for a fairer tax system that asks the wealthiest to pay more into the state coffers and have the state provide more school funding so it doesn’t end up shifting to the overburdened property tax.  Then energy policy will not be conflated with good education policy, as seems to be happening in this instance, and, no doubt, in other areas of the state.

Barbara Lifton
Member of Assembly
125th District
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