CITIZEN POWER ALLIANCE

William Parment calls it theft, and he’s right. The Southern Tier assemblyman sees the effort to reframe the state’s Power for Jobs program as a bid to steal one of Western New York’s primary resources — one from which it already benefits too little.

The proposals — there are four of them — would take away 455 megawatts of low-cost hydropower that now reduces upstate utility bills by an average of $2 to $4 per month and, instead, expand the Power for Jobs program. The problem is that those megawatts could be spread statewide, so that a program meant to benefit upstate would be diminished. Upstate cannot afford that loss.

The issue comes up because the Power for Jobs program expires this week. It provides low-cost power to 440 businesses and nonprofit organizations across the state. Something has to be done to continue that program, but that something doesn’t have to include thievery.

As unacceptable as some of these plans are, they do share a virtue: They recognize that New Yorkers will get much more bang for their buck if, instead of parceling the benefits out in $2 increments across upstate, the power was used to attract employers that will provide jobs and pay taxes. Thus, the solution is to add the megawatts to the Power for Jobs program, but restrict its usage to upstate.

(Click to read the entire article)