CITIZEN POWER ALLIANCE

Finger Lakes, N.Y. — A state senator from downstate is tallying resident’s calls about whether to have a moratorium on gas drilling. Geneva-based Finger Lakes Zero Waste Coalition, an environmental-activist group, wants people who support a moratorium to call Sen. John Sampson, in hopes he will bring a bill (S7592A/Addabbo) on a moratorium to the Senate floor for a vote. Call (518) 455-2788.

They can't vote and they can't even discuss one of the biggest issues ever to come before the Broome County Legislature.

That's the situation four of 19 Broome legislators find themselves in as the county considers a potential $15.9 million land deal with a natural gas company.

Suzanne Gorman Messina, D-6th District; Marchie Diffendorf, R-7th District; Stephen Herz, D-9th District; and Ronald Keibel, R-11th District, will have to recuse themselves "on all matters and resolutions pertaining to the leasing of county-owned property for oil and natural gas exploration," Chairman Daniel Reynolds said in the memo.

In May 2009, County Attorney Joseph Sluzar recommended that legislators with a stake in the natural gas rush be barred from shaping county policy regarding the issue. Sluzar said his recommendation was "very conservative advice." Politics, possible conflicts, and large sums of money are "classic ingredients" in prosecutions against public officials, he said at that time.

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Senator Writes Letter Of Protest

State Senator Cathy Young is co-chair of the state senate’s administrative regulatory review commission, and Senator Young is opposed to the possible rate increase that New York State Electric and Gas wants to implement. "I'm totally against any kind of rate increase. People can't afford it right now, they're already having a hard enough time paying their bills, and this is especially hard after last year when Albany raised the utility taxes and so this is really bad timing," Senator Young told WLEA/WCKR News. Sen. Young also says she will be writing a letter of protest against this idea.

A spokesman for the New York State Public Service Commission says that New York State Electric and Gas might possibly be increasing their rates. NYSEG and RG&E will be filing a document with the commission this week.

Attempts to reach NYSEG before newstime were not successful.

After initially proposing large rate increases, New York State Electric & Gas Corp. and its sister company, Rochester Gas & Electric Corp., appear to be on track to win approval of smaller increases from state regulators.

The staff of the state Public Service Commission is working on a joint proposal with NYSEG and RG&E, and the sides believe they will reach agreement this week, according to commission spokesman James Denn.

At stake is how much residents and businesses pay for the delivery of electricity and natural gas. Delivery charges account for almost one-third of a customer's monthly bill. The majority of the bill -- supply costs and taxes -- are not part of these rate cases.

What has been striking about the cases is a lack of strong opposition, perhaps because the utilities haven't been granted rate increases since 1996. During that 14-year period, overall consumer prices have risen 39 percent.

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After initially proposing large rate increases, Rochester Gas and Electric Corp. and its sister company, New York State Electric and Gas Corp., appear to be on track to win approval of smaller increases from state regulators.

The staff of the state Public Service Commission is working on a joint proposal with RG&E and NYSEG, and the sides believe they will reach agreement this week, according to commission spokesman James Denn.

At stake is how much Rochester-area residents and businesses pay for the delivery of electricity and natural gas. Delivery charges account for almost one-third of a customer’s monthly bill. The majority of the bill — supply costs and taxes — are not part of these rate cases.

What has been striking about the cases is a lack of strong opposition, perhaps because the utilities haven’t been granted rate increases since 1996. During that 14-year period, overall consumer prices have risen 39 percent.

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Agriculture officials have quarantined 28 beef cattle on a Pennsylvania farm after wastewater from a nearby gas well leaked into a field and came in contact with the animals.

The state Department of Agriculture said the action was its first livestock quarantine related to pollution from natural gas drilling. Although the quarantine was ordered in May, it was announced Thursday.

A mere taste of what's to come from natural-gas fracking in the Marcellus Shale, folks.

With fracking, or hydraulic fracturing of rock formations to extract natural gas, we're setting ourselves up for an environmental disaster of epic proportions -- and much of it the result of an inability to develop rural economies. Residents in upstate New York and central Pennsylvania are desperate for income, and the gas companies are happy to write checks for mineral rights. Meanwhile, Pennsylvania and New York are in the middle of state budget crises. The prospect of tax revenue from fracking is apparently more than enough to offset environmental concerns.

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U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer today called on the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) to block a 20% electricity delivery rate hike requested by National Grid Power. Schumer said that for almost a decade consumers and businesses have been expecting a rate cut once National Grid paid down the debt it took on after its purchase of Niagara Mohawk. Over the past ten years, New Yorkers have paid a "competitive transition charge" totaling $4.8 billion to finance this debt, which is scheduled to be paid down in 2011.

The delivery rate hike approved at the time of the purchase, in 2002, has caused the Central New York region to have some of the highest electricity rates in the country, acting as an anchor around the neck of economic development efforts. Now, instead of providing their customers with the relief they deserve, National Grid is asking for yet another increase. Schumer said that while this delivery rate increase will not cause an increase in customers' bills, it will wipe out any relief they would have seen and leave electricity costs in the region sky high.

"For almost a decade, electricity prices far above the national average have been a burden to ratepayers and a yoke around the neck of economic development efforts in Central New York; it's time for the Public Service Commission to send a loud and clear message to National Gird that this classic game of bait and switch is fooling no one," Schumer said. "In 2002 customers were hit with big rate hikes and they expected relief when the debt was paid off - well that day is here and it's time for National Grid to deliver rate relief for its customers instead of coming back for another massive increase."

In 2002, National Grid took over Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation and assumed responsibility for Niagara's debt. Over the past ten years, New Yorkers have paid a "competitive transition charge" to finance this debt, which is scheduled to be paid down in 2011. For families forced to shoulder the burden of this debt through higher utility bills, the year 2011 was to mark a significant decrease in their electricity payments. Unfortunately, National Grid has applied for a 20% percent delivery rate increase beginning in 2011, meaning residents will receive no relief in their utility bills.

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A planned severance tax on gas extracted from the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania needs to be "fair," so that it doesn't discourage gas drilling, according to the director of the Marcellus Shale Coalition.

"The Marcellus Shale is not the only shale play that is under development" in the United States, said Kathryn Klaber, president and executive director the Marcellus Shale Coalition. "There is a lot of competition for dollars" to develop gas wells, she said.

Pennsylvania needs to stay "ahead of the curve in terms of investment" in gas drilling, Klaber said in a conference call with reporters on Tuesday.

The state budget bill that Gov. Ed Rendell signed on Tuesday sets up action this fall on a natural gas severance tax.

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Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for governor of New York, called for a ban on drilling in the Marcellus Shale last week.

A geologic formation containing an estimated 168 trillion to 516 trillion cubic feet of natural gas — about ten percent of which might eventually be recoverable — the Marcellus Shale has turned large parts of northern and western Pennsylvania and the southern tier of New York into what some have dubbed the “Saudi Arabia of natural gas.”

Hydraulic fracturing is a process that requires injecting a fracturing fluid, mostly water but also containing hundreds of chemicals, into the shale at a very high pressure to fracture or “open up” the rock. Oil and gas industry spokesmen contend that the benefits outweigh the risks and that the natural gas, chemicals and contaminated water flow up to the wellhead where they are captured for production or remain trapped in the shale rock thousands of feet below the surface, while environmental critics argue that the gas and fluids can flow into the groundwater supply or the air, polluting both, while potentially creating dry beds out of streams, ponds and rivers.

Likening heavily-favored Democrat Andrew Cuomo to Goliath and his Republican opponent to David, the lifelong third-party activist — a veteran of Dr. Benjamin Spock’s 1972 presidential campaign — jokes that he’s the pesky “mosquito they are both swatting at.” In announcing his candidacy a few months ago, Hawkins told the Syracuse Post-Herald that he hopes to raise approximately $100,000 for his uphill campaign.

The Green Party needs 50,000 votes for governor to gain permanent ballot status in New York.

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The Legislature has yet to act on two bills that would enact a moratorium on natural-gas drilling in the state's portion of the Marcellus Shale formation, increasing the likelihood that they won't be taken up before legislative session ends

The bills would place a temporary ban on the use of hydraulic fracturing, a controversial extraction technique in which a mixture of water, chemicals and sand is blasted deep underground to break up the rock formation and make natural gas more accessible. One bill would place a moratorium on the practice until May 15, 2011. The other would ban the practice until 120 days after a federal Environmental Protection Agency study is completed, which is expected to take at least two years.

The legislation sits in committee in both the Senate and the Assembly, and a spokesman for the Senate Democrats said it is unlikely the bill will be taken to the Senate floor for a vote this week. Lawmakers are expected to leave Albany shortly after a state budget is passed, which could come as soon as Thursday.

"I think both bills have some challenges," said Sen. Antoine Thompson, D-Buffalo, the sponsor of bill that would provide the one-year moratorium and the chair of the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee. "The Senate Democrats have not conferenced those bills to the best of my knowledge, and I have not been asked to shed insight in the conference setting, so that's the answer I can give at this point."

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