New York Needs Power Plant Siting Law Renewed for Economic Growth and Job Creation 

By:  Arthur J. Kremer
Chairman to the Advisory Board and Former New York Assemblyman 

New York’s electricity situation is fragile, at best.  Left unchecked, the state could face serious reliability questions, as California did a few years ago, while also paying sharply higher costs for electricity. 

Suppose you went to the village hall to apply for a permit to build a new house and were told to come back in two years because no permits are being issued? 

This simple example sums up the frustration of power plant builders who have been waiting since December 2002 for the New York State legislature to pass an extension of Article X of the Public Service Law. 

Despite studies pointing to reliability problems in the national power grid, brownouts and a variety of system breakdowns, the state legislature has been hopelessly deadlocked over an issue that affects the economic future of every region of New York. 

One house in Albany, siding with neighborhood groups that want no new plant construction in their backyard (not-in-my-back-yard activists or NIMBYs), want the law changed to require even the smallest generator, known as a “peaker,” should be subjected to a prolonged environmental process.  Another version calls for a simple extension of the law with no major changes.  Each side claims their version is the most responsible way to deal with plant siting.  

While Albany fiddles, the state’s power needs are on hold for many years to come.  In May 2003, the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) warned that the state has “stayed just ahead of potential reliability problems for the past three years by utilizing stopgap measures and by driving the existing electrical infrastructure harder and harder.”  The NYISO estimates that the state needs at least 5,000 megawatts of additional capacity (or enough power for five million homes) and that the majority of those needs are in the downstate area.  

This past January, Mayor Bloomberg’s Energy Task Force found that the city alone needs 2,600 additional megawatts of electricity by 2008, or the city will face major shortages.  The rebuilding of the World Trade Center site alone will require a massive infusion of new megawatts to sustain this enormous effort. 

A lack of reliable electricity leads to blackouts.  And blackouts, to be sure, are expensive.  The blackout of August 2003, which lasted about 24 hours, cost New York City alone more than $1 billion. 

The construction of new power plants means not just new construction jobs.  It is a guaranty that builders of new houses, office space, shopping malls, residential facilities, and other commercial properties will want to make an investment in the future of New York State.  The failure of the state legislature to enact an extension of Article X sends a powerfully negative message.  You can build it but there is no guaranty that the electricity will be available. 

At the same time that the legislature is stalling on Article X, anti-nuclear activists and some local NIMBYs in Westchester County have mounted a heavily financed campaign to shut down the Indian Point Nuclear Energy Center in Buchanan, New York.  Indian Point provides 20 to 40 per cent of the electricity used downstate and in New York City.   

Indian Point’s two power plants, which generate nearly as much electricity as the Hoover Dam (2,000 megawatts), have been operating safely and securely for close to 30 years.   It makes important, and for all intents and purposes irreplaceable, contributions to New York’s electricity demands. 

Throughout New York State the message resonating from almost every community is “we need jobs.”  New jobs do not come from the thin air.  They are created by optimism and by the belief of people with money that this state is the place to invest dollars that will produce more dollars.  The extension of Article X is not just some concept being debated by a handful of politicos.

Article X renewal is important for the economic prosperity of 13 million residents of this power hungry state.  Promptly re-enacting Article X will ensure that the State has a very bright future ­ both literally and figuratively. 

About the Author:  Arthur J. Kremer is the former Chairman of the New York State Assembly’s Ways & Means Committee and helped to author a previous version of the Article X Siting Law.