Senator George Maziarz, Chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, is continuing his efforts to make the New York Power Authority more accountable to the communities in Upstate New York where low-cost hydropower is generated.
Today, Senator Maziarz sent a letter to Richie Kessel, NYPA’s President and CEO, calling on NYPA to hold public hearings in Niagara County and St. Lawrence County on the proposed deal to send 15 megawatts of low-cost hydropower to Brookhaven Labs in Suffolk County, Long Island. NYPA has explicitly stated that this 15 MW is power that would be generated at the Niagara Power Project in Lewiston and the Roosevelt Power Project in Massena.
One public hearing was held in Brookhaven on January 19 but, as Senator Maziarz pointed out in the letter, “Simple common sense tells us that hosting a hearing in Brookhaven on the topic of sending low-cost power from Niagara and Massena to Brookhaven Labs is likely to draw no opposition—of course the people of Brookhaven are going to overwhelmingly support it.”
“Our Upstate communities should have the chance to speak up when our locally-generated hydropower being sent to Long Island,” Senator Maziarz said. “We’re sure that the public input you would receive would be vastly different than the comments made in Brookhaven.
The letter was co-signed by Senator Joseph Griffo, who represents part of St. Lawrence County.
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