CITIZEN POWER ALLIANCE

The plan is broken into 14 proposals that each fall under the umbrella of five strategies developed by the council, focusing on health care, renewable energy, rural economics, infrastructure and transportation.

» The Community Revitalization Project, a $60 million investment in 60 to 75 major community revitalization efforts that would create 4,500 jobs and 35 to 40 businesses.

» A Rural Initiative Venture Fund that would create 2,000 jobs through a $10 million investment in diversifying, improving and expanding the region's agribusiness industry.

» The Next Generation Transportation Development Initiative, a $14 million investment aimed at establishing the Southern Tier as a bedroom community for New York City with a high-speed inter-city transportation project.

» A three-year, $7 million regional broadband project that would connect 26,000 rural homes and businesses to enhanced Internet service.

» A $5 million investment in renewable energy that would retrofit 145,000 buildings and create 4,500 jobs.

(Click to read the entire article)

In 2009 Google announced a project in which it would pursue a so-far elusive goal – to produce “Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal” (“REto ingratiate themselves with the Obama administration by following its “Green jobs” agenda.

But last week the company announced it will end RE

“We’re in the process of shutting a number of products which haven’t had the impact we’d hoped for,” wrote Urs Hölzle, Senior Vice President of Operations, on the company’s blog.

Under RE, Google dedicated an engineering team to research and try to improve solar technology. Upon its 2009 announcement the company’s Green Energy Czar Bill Weihl told Reuters he expected “within a few years” that his people would be able to demonstrate technology that produces renewable energy cheaper than coal.

(Click to read the entire article)

(Click to watch the presentation video)

National Grid, the British power conglomerate that owns the power system in parts of New York, was expected to receive a forceful call today from U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer.

Schumer, D-N.Y., speaking this morning at a dairy farm in Covington, Wyoming County, told a gathering of farmers and local officials that he will demand National Grid live up to its commitment to connect its power grid to a manure-powered generator at the Synergy Dairy by the end of the year.

Schumer got involved because the energy project must start producing electricity by Dec. 31 to qualify for $2.8 million in federal energy tax breaks.

National Grid agreed more than a year ago to connect power lines to the manure- and food-waste-digesting generator, Schumer said, but hasn’t done it and now says it cannot do the work until March.

(Click to read the entire article)

The Obama administration controls the tie-breaking vote on a plan to begin drilling for natural gas in the Northeast, shining a spotlight on its efforts to find a middle ground on the use of hydraulic fracturing to tap deep shale rock formations for energy.

Some local environmental groups are comparing the proposal, and their efforts to block it, to the debate over the Keystone XL pipeline, which would bring crude to the United States from Canada's oil sands region. Green groups claimed a big victory earlier this month when the administration delayed a decision on that project.

The administration is holding its cards close to the vest on the drilling proposal before the Delaware River Basin Commission. The obscure but important agency has authority over development in a watershed that includes parts of four states and supplies drinking water to 5 percent of the country's population, including Philadelphia and New York City.

Late last week, the commission called off a vote that had been planned for today on whether to approve regulations and allow drilling to start.

(Click to read the entire article)

Hydrofracking is a simple technology that has opened a vast natural gas resource for development.

New York's anti-hydrofracking crowd would have us believe that this technology will ruin our water supplies. The pro-fracking side tells us that it's safe, and will boost our economy. Each side is partially correct. So why is hydrofracking so controversial?

New York state already has thousands of natural gas wells, and nearly all of them have been hydrofracked. As far back as the 1960s New York's drillers would "frack" new gas wells by injecting a mixture of water under extreme pressure to fracture the rock, sand grains to prop the new fractures open, lubricants such as diesel fuel to make the water flow more easily, and toxic chemicals to prevent microbial growth.

Without hydrofracking the natural gas would stay embedded in the shale and not flow into the wells.

New York's gas resource will be developed: It's just too big to ignore. With gas prices low we lose nothing by going slow and making sure we have all the regulations and oversight in place.

(Click to read the entire article)

Finger Lakes, N.Y. — Attorney General Eric Schneiderman Friday issued the following statement regarding a decision by the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) to postpone a scheduled vote on its proposed draft hydrofracking regulations.

“This delay further demonstrates that the proposed regulations for fracking in the Delaware River Basin are not ready to see the light of day. Without a full, fair and open review of the potential risks of fracking in the Basin, the public will continue to question the federal government’s ability to protect public health and environment.

“I also commend Delaware Governor Markell for stating that Delaware would vote 'no' on the current regulations. His position echoes my long-standing position: the federal government must follow both common sense and the law, and conduct a full study of fracking in the Basin before proceeding with regulations.”

Source

On this issue, no one sits on the fence.

With hundreds of people filling Dansville for an afternoon session and hundreds more piling in for the evening public hearing, New York residents came with strong arguments both for an against hydrofracking, but nothing in between.

The public hearing was a chance for the Department of Environmental Conservation to hear public comment on its regulations on high volume hydraulic fracturing within the state’s borders, something that could become a reality without much more of a wait.

During the afternoon session, 64 people were able to get their opinions out to the audience and DEC officials. It is estimated that 800 - 900 people came through the former school to attend, some 160 in hopes of speaking. The evening session brought more people, all limited to three minutes of commenting time each.

(Click to read the entire article)