Energy office needed to help develop community power
Jefferson County requires an energy czar. We have no public official qualified to equate renewable energy opportunities, file FERC (Federal Energy Regulating Commission) development records and apply for the various grant opportunities. This individual, of necessity, must be a mechanical/electrical engineer. We have tried the county Industrial Development Agency (IDA) over the years, but energy development is not their skill set.
Here are projects ready for development to secure our energy future with a 30- to 50-year FERC power license providing static pricing:
■ Landegger Public Power at Pearl Street in the current form of a breached dam. This section of the Black River is the fountain of a once-industrial Watertown. We had the former Niagara Mohawk hydropower chief operating officer in town two weeks ago to detail this city property back to production.
■ The Watertown city schools need relief from onerous $0.18 to $0.20/kilowatts (KW) electric rates. There is a prospect of wholesale hydropower from the 40 megawatts (MW) Glen Park facility and dispersing it to the industrial park and Fort Drum. Another feed is from the city's Marble Street hydropower facility that operates at about half potential. Also, part of those monies the city manager crows about from NiMo was taken from the schools in 1991.
■ The St. Lawrence River at the Narrows will be tapped for power. We have a prior FERC preliminary permit to use for a filing guide and an engineer to consult on development of resource. Clayton and Alex Bay should become energy self-sufficient.
Alliance for Municipal Power (AMP) in St. Lawrence County has led the way in community power. This opportunity could be presented to local ratepayers as the wave of the future offering rate control and self-reliance. National Grid has pending rate increases before thePublic Service Commission (PSC) up to $400 million.
The New York State Legislature has massive thermal solar legislation under development. The plan for thermal solar to supply the 50 percent of household heat dedicated to hot water and supplement space heating. This legislation suggests 22,000 jobs.
There are biomass programs coming down the pike that alone will power the county, using cow effluent and wood in its various forms. Geothermal is receiving a federal stimulus push for public structures. It is a success at Indian River schools and in many buildings in Central New York. Natural gas must be integrated into various machines.
The need for this energy office is now. Beat the corporate interests with community power.
David Graf
Watertown
