CITIZEN POWER ALLIANCE

Rochester, N.Y.- People in Rochester will get the chance Tuesday to let the State Public Service Commission know how they feel about proposals by Rochester Gas and Electric and New York State Electric & Gas Corporation to raise utility rates.

State regulators are holding four public hearings on the matter.

NYSEG has proposed increasing rates by $169.7 million for electric service delivery and by $63.4 million for natural gas delivery service.

RG&E proposed increasing rates by $87.4 million for electric service delivery and $62.9 million for natural gas delivery.

If approved by the PSC, the rate hikes would become effective September 25, 2010.

Tuesday’s hearing will be held from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. at Rochester City Hall on Church Street.

The New York State Public Service Commission will hold a public statement hearing, and otherwise invites public comments, on a proposal by the Hudson Transmission Partners to construct a transmission line connecting an existing substation in Ridgefield, New Jersey to the West 49th Street substation owned by Consolidated Edison. The 345 kV line will enter the Hudson River at Edgewater, New Jersey and will be buried beneath the riverbed and proceed south to a point adjacent to Piers 92 and 94 opposite West 52nd Street where it will enter Manhattan.

The proposed transmission facility, if built, would provide the New York Power Authority with transmission access to sources of power in the PJM electric system, a regional transmission operator in Pennsylvania that coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity in all or parts of 13 states and the District of Columbia.

Interested members of the public may provide their comments regarding this matter at a public statement hearing to be held as follows:

APRIL 27, 1 p.m.
NYS Department of Public Service
4th Floor Board Room
90 Church Street
Manhattan, NYC

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There's been an unexpected great leap over what to do about the high-volume natural gas drilling proposed for New York's Southern Tier and into the Catskills.

Many who are skeptical of drilling are going to love it and rejoice. But wait, there may still be a snake or two in the woodpile for those who want to see a wider ban. In truth, it just got harder to stop the gas industry from more or less getting its way.

What's happened is this: The state in effect has taken the New York City watershed in the Catskills out of consideration for hydrofrack gas drilling. The Department of Environmental Conservation is developing a generic environmental impact statement from which a set of rules, procedures and regulations will be crafted to govern hydrofrack gas drilling. We learned this past week that the DEC should have that statement done by late fall. Pending drilling permits could begin a review process shortly after. It's coming soon, near you. Maybe.

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Syracuse, NY -- State regulators are inching closer to a decision on double-digit rate hikes proposed by two Upstate electric and gas utilities that serve portions of Central New York. Now it’s time for consumers to weigh in.

New York State Electric & Gas Corp. and Rochester Gas & Electric Corp. are looking to boost their delivery revenues in September by increasing customer bills for electricity and natural gas by roughly 15 percent to 19 percent.

Go to the PSC website, www.dps.state.ny.us, and fill in the electronic “comment form.”

• Write to Jaclyn Brilling, secretary, NYS Public Service Commission, 3 Empire State Plaza, Albany, 12223.

• Call the PSC opinion line at 1-800-335-2120.

Your comments should refer to the appropriate case numbers. For NYSEG, the case numbers are 09-E-0715 (electric) and 09-G-0716 (gas); for RG&E, the numbers are 09-E-0717 (electric) and 09-G-0718 (gas).

ALBANY - The New York State Public Service Commission (Commission) today announced it would hold public statement hearings on proposals by New York State Electric & Gas Corporation (NYSEG) and Rochester Gas and Electric Corporation (RG&E) to increase rates.

NYSEG has proposed to increase rates by approximately $169.7 million for electric delivery service and by $63.4 million for natural gas delivery service. The proposed increases represent approximately 32.2 percent of NYSEG's electric delivery revenue and 39.5 percent of its gas delivery revenue.

RG&E has proposed to increase rates by approximately $87.4 million for electric delivery service and by $62.9 million for natural gas delivery service. The proposed increases represent approximately 27.1 percent of RG&E's electric delivery revenue and 47.1 percent of its gas delivery revenue.

The increases for both NYSEG and RG&E would become effective on September 25, 2010. Under New York State Law, the Commission must consider utility rate proposals and may adopt, reject, or amend any part of the requested changes in rates and services.

Four separate public statement hearings will be held at the following locations:

Tuesday, April 27 -- Rochester
City Hall Common Council Chambers
30 Church Street, 3rd floor
1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Tuesday, April 27 -- Geneva
Geneva Community Center Black Box Theater
160 Carter Road
5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Wednesday, April 28 -- Binghamton
Broome County Public Library Decker Room
185 Court Street
5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Thursday, April 29 -- Lancaster
Lancaster Village Municipal Building Auditorium
5423 Broadway
4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Public hearings, including one in Rochester, have been scheduled by the state Public Service Commission related to proposed rate increases by Rochester Gas and Electric Corp. and New York State Electric & Gas Corp.

The Rochester hearing is on Tuesday from 1 to 3 p.m. in council chambers at City Hall, the commission said. Also on that day, a hearing is scheduled from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Geneva Community Center in Ontario County.

Other hearings are scheduled for next Wednesday from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Broome County Public Library in Binghamton, and next Thursday from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Lancaster Village Municipal Building in Erie County.

The public can comment at the hearings before an administrative law judge assigned by the commission to these cases, PSC officials said. Verbatim transcripts of the hearings will be made for inclusion in the record of the proceeding, officials said.

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Financial scandals are not new. Schemes to leverage risk and cheat the public are mainstays of the mad “Cap and Trade” stratagem, in the ongoing war, against genuine free enterprise. The latest ploy is the industrial wind swindle.

In the essay, Wall Street Reaps Big Bucks from the Wind, the strategy to defraud the public is explored. “The latest rage out of the boiler room sharks that hawk new equity issues touts alternative energy. The hype that is coming out of Wall Street resembles the internet band wagon before the bust . . . Goldman Sachs rushes to finance the offers with their expertise – using other peoples’ money . . . Understand from the outset, that producing useful energy is not the prime objective of wind projects.”

To illustrate this point the pending First Wind Holdings Inc. SEC S-1 and S-1A application for an IPO readily admits that producing electricity it is not necessary to be profitable.

Understanding the complexity of industrial wind can be a challenge. The derogative knock NIMBY, is meant to deceive and distract from the reality that an ill “Wall Street” wind blows behind the heretical doctrine of global warming.

(Click to read the entire essay)

On April 2, 2010, NYS Assembly bill 10490 was referred to the New York Assembly’s Environmental Conservation Committee (EnCon). The Bill will establish a moratorium on gas drilling in New York State until 120 days after the Environmental Protection Agency releases its study of the gas industry and its impacts.

On April, 13, 2010, NYS Assembly Bill 10633 was referred to the Assembly’s EnCon Committee. The “home rule” bill will give local governments zoning control over where gas drilling can occur in their jurisdictions.

Two days later, April 15th, was a busy, busy day in New York gas news:

* New York’s gas extraction lobby, the Independent Oil & Gas Association (IOGA-NY) proposed to rescue “New York State’s environmental and parks budgets“ by drilling in New York’s protected park lands. IOGA-NY’s press release asserted, “New York State could raise more than $200 million in fiscal year 2010-11…” and urged, “expediting the auction of state land leases and the application approval process.” (According to Governor Patterson’s Budget Briefing Book, the current budget deficit is $3.2 billion and is expected to reach $6.8 billion in 2010-11, $14.3 billion in 2011-12 and by 2013, $20.7 billion.)

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The review of a draft plan for natural gas extraction from the Marcellus Shale is being slowed by a staff shortage and may not be finished until late summer or early fall, the state Department of Environmental Conservation commissioner said Thursday.

Speaking after giving the opening remarks at an environmental conference hosted by the state Business Council, Commissioner Alexander "Pete" Grannis said workers in his agency were in the process of reviewing and responding to 13,500 comments from the general public on the draft, which must be finalized before permits to drill are granted.

Pennsylvania environmental regulators on Thursday banned an energy company from drilling in the state until it plugs three natural gas wells believed to have contaminated the drinking water supplies of 14 homes.

The Department of Environmental Protection said Houston-based Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. has failed to abide by the terms of a November 2009 agreement to clean up the contamination in Dimock Township in northeastern Pennsylvania's Susquehanna County, where residents say their wells have been polluted by methane gas and other contaminants.

DEP said Cabot has already paid a $240,000 fine and must pay $30,000 per month beginning in May until the company meets its obligations.

"We're very upset with Cabot," state Environmental Secretary John Hanger told The Associated Press. "The conduct, whether it's willful or unintentional, is completely unacceptable."

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