New York State Leverages Green Power To Drive Economic Development
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 12. 5.06
Via the "The Buffalo News" (sign-in needed) we just learned that "A state commission is recommending that low-cost hydropower currently limited to businesses within a 30-mile radius of the Niagara Power Project be made available to businesses in six Western New York counties": - Erie, Niagara, Chautauqua, Genesee, Orleans and Wyoming. "Extension to a wider geographic area comes after critics from other parts of the state noted that the region had been unable to find enough eligible firms to use all of the low-cost electricity available." "Profits from the sale of unallocated hydropower [about 400 megawatts] currently reserved for businesses near the Niagara Power Project or the St. Lawrence-FDR Power Project in northern New York would go into a pool of funds reserved for economic development purposes. Half of the money would go to the region where the power is produced, with the other half going into a statewide pool".
Can you imagine this? Wind power generators can sell all they can make, while one of the US' largest hydroelectric facilities, driven by Niagara Falls, could not find enough customers. Even more surprising, is the apparent lack of recognition by economic development planners and power utility commissioners that every bit of Niagara's power is green and for the time being more reliable than hydropower from the drought-plagued Western US. What will it take for them to realize the sustainability value, and leverage this power for businesses wanting to offer carbon neutrality to their customers? Maybe a fantastically early, destructive winter storm would get their attention. Or not.
Meanwhile, as our Eric Kane reports, Governor Pataki showed signs of getting it.
We wonder how many small businesses in Western NY State have figured out that they could make a reasonable claim to fully carbon neutral operations, just by running off the Niagara?
We're talking about a virtuous circle here. Use the Niagara to mitigate climate change by fostering the growth of green businesses. Only by doing that now, to the fullest extent possible, is there a chance of precluding the darkest of climate disaster scenarios, where runoff from the Great Lakes is reduced by mid-century, causing the Niagara River to lose much of its flow. Yes TreeHuggers, Environment Canada has outline that very scenario as plausible.
So, let's hear a title-earning, waterfall-dimming roar from you TreeHugging New Yorkers. Make it Green Empire State, or what?
Photo credit: Space Imaging
And there was much rejoicing...
Yea, yea, yea... [ half-hearted]
Okay so, we are a very pessimisstic crowd. Maybe my families home can run on this then?
Let us go green! [Crowd goes Wild]
As a New Yorker I can buy "green power" through my power company, which I believe is wind generated. Why, oh why can't I buy Niagara Falls power?? I'd do it in a second!
Ah, buying green power form the utility company. I love how we have to opt into that. I mean, it is a great system that the power companies have to provide as much green power as consumers demand... but there is no legislation preventing them from just moving green power already on the grid from the "regular power mix" column to the "for customers demanding green power" column. Not to mention the fact that they charge you more for green power regardless of how much more or less it actually costs. And in NY, that is significant because NY gets an unusually large proportion of its energy from oil. So customers are paying higher and higher "fuel surcharges" on electric bills due to rising oil costs- at least that is how LIPA does it on LI- and green power is STILL billed as 1 or 2 cents more per kWh.