ARTICLE X
New York State does not have an electric utility licensing law. It expired on January 1, 2003 and has not been reauthorized. New legislation has not passed to replace the old law. The two bills below have passed the New York State Assembly and are currently (6-12-07) being considered in a conference committee. Governor Eliot Spitzer also has supplements he would like to see in the legislation.
Senate
http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?bn=S05908&sh=t
House
http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?bn=A08697
Utility siting is handled in New York by the Public Service Commission's New York State Board on Electric Generation Siting and the Environment. A GUIDE to the certification review process for electric generaing facilities under Article X shows the review process for applications to construct and operate an electric generating facility with a capacity of 80 megawatts or more. Utilities are siting 79.9 megawatt facilities until a new Article X is passed.
There is some concern, from an environmetnal justice perspective, that these 'mini' plants are being disproportionately sited in minority neighborhoods. In response, AAEA-New York drafted environmental justice legislation that was introduced by Council member Charles Barron.
Reauthorizing Article X is needed to permit plants over 80 megawatts of capacity. The reaurhorization should also streamline the process. However, New York is in a precarious situation regarding electricitiy supply and demand. The lights could go out any minute because New York has not been building the capacity it needs. The state does not want to be captive to electricity imports either, although it should have adequate powerlines to supplement in-state demand if needed in certain emergencies.
Governor Spitzer has been promoting his Clean Energy Power Supply Act (CEPS Act). The CEPS Act call's for reducing New York's energy use 15 percent by 2015. The governor also has an Article X proposal that would fast track non-fossil fuel power plants. The governor is ruling out nuclear power and new coal burning power plants.
The Democrat-controlled Assembly and Governor Spitzer are promoting green technologies, such as wind, oil and natural gas, which meet environmentally sound standards, and coal plants that use carbon-capture technology. The Republican-controlled Senate is promoting legislation that includes streamlined licensing for conventional coal-fired and nuclear plants. AAEA New York supports a mix of energy sources, including energy efficiency and conservation, fuel cells, wind, solar, hydro, clean coal and nuclear.
We also believe environmental justice provisions should be in any Article X reauthorization to protect low-income and minority neighborhoods. These neighborhoods are already burdened with most pollution sources and should not have to absorb disproportionately larger amounts of pollution from any source.
More On Article X and New York Energy
Gov. Eliot Spitzer, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver cannot seem to pass a reauthorization of Article X, which expired in 2003. New York's electricity is about 57 percent higher than the national average and has the fifth highest rates in the country. New York alson needs additional generation to increase reliability, improve security and reduce the risk of blackouts. New York speak electric demand grows at a rate of t2 percent a year, the same as the national average.
The Senate wants Article X to apply to any proposed nuclear power plants; the governor and the Assembly don't want nukes in the bill. The Senate supports certain coal and natural gas generators. The governor's proposed emission standards in his Article X bill limit those options. The Assembly has concerns about the location of power plants in poor communities. But those are environmental justice issues that can be addressed without limiting new generation.
To strike a balance, consider how New York -- which generates 86 percent of the electricity it consumes in-state -- compares with other states.
New York gets 25 percent of its electricity from nuclear generators, well above the national average of almost 20 percent per state, 14 percent for hydropower, more than twice the average for other states, 12 for coal, compared to the national average of almost 50 percent.
New York is a signatory to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. In 2003 New York's per capita carbon footprint per capita was 44 percent below the national average. New York also ranked 50th in the nation in per capita energy consumption, partly because because of the state's low reliance on coal and widely used mass transit in the New York City area.
