New York power plants okayed, NYPA still faces lawsuits
Date: 23-Feb-01
Country: USA
On Tuesday, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), the agency responsible for approving of small generating plants, issued a permit to the NYPA for its new Pouch Terminal station in Staten Island, the last of NYPA's seven power plants to gain approval.
The NYPA said in a statement late Tuesday it was moving ahead quickly to assure its new power plants will be ready before this summer when air conditioning pushes power usage to its annual peak.
Environmental, community and businesses groups suing to stop the construction of the plants, however, said the NYPA was using the threat of a California-like energy crisis to avoid New York's extensive environmental siting process for building a new large power plant.
State utility officials have said NYPA's new plants were needed to help stave off California-like blackouts and energy price spikes in New York City and Long Island this summer.
Like California, where energy shortages were now a daily event, New York's demand for energy grew more than expected over the last decade, while nearly no new generation was built.
New York, however, was in much better shape than California, which was struggling just to keep the lights on. New York was trying to maintain an energy reserve, or safety net, over the amount of power actually being used.
Since last summer, the Power Authority has purchased 11 simple-cycle, 44-megawatt (MW) natural gas-powered generating plants for installation at six sites in New York City and one on Long Island that will add nearly 500 MW of new power supplies in the New York City-area. One megawatt of electricity provides enough power to light about 1,000 average homes.
THREAT OF THE LAWSUITS
Despite the threat of potential power shortages this summer, at least two lawsuits have been filed to stop the Power Authority from continuing to build the plants.
In the first lawsuit, Silvercup Studios, the maker hit cable shows "Sex in the City" and "The Sopranos", sued to stop construction at one site - Vernon Blvd. in Queens - because Silvercup wanted to build a new studio on the site next to where NYPA was building its power plant.
The judge in the Silvercup case granted the studio's request for a temporary restraining order on Feb. 1, but the order was tied to the studio posting a $5.0 million bond. Silvercup did not post the bond and hence the NYPA continued to work on the site.
On Feb. 16 in another hearing, the judge granted Silvercup a preliminary injunction that was also tied to the studio posting a bond. Once again Silvercup did not post the bond and the NYPA again was left to work on the site.
Later Wednesday, there will be another hearing to determine what Silvercup must do to stop NYPA from working on the site.
A spokesman for the NYPA, Stephen Shoenholz, told Reuters he did not know what to expect from the hearing. In the past, however, the NYPA has said it would immediately appeal any injunction.
"The overriding goal is to have these units available by June 1," Shoenholz said. "Even one day's delay could cause a problem."
The other lawsuit filed by a group of environmental and community groups was aimed at stopping work at all of the sites.
To date, the groups have asked for temporary restraining order, but the judge in that case denied their request.
The actual court proceeding on the merits of the second suit will begin on March 12. The proceedings on the substance of the Silvercup case will begin on Friday, Feb. 23.
So far, some of the turbines have been installed at a few of the plants, while site preparation work was ongoing at all of the plants. Later this week, NYPA expected the turbine for the Pouch Terminal site on Staten Island to be delivered.
"The two lawsuits have not slowed our progress," Shoenholz said. "Neither has affected the work at all."