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Power Outrage
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Business New Haven
9/01/2003
By: BNH
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Connecticut public officials and some environmental groups have acted dangerously in their reaction to requests by New York Gov. George Pataki and other Empire State officials (including U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer) with regard to the flow of electricity over the Cross Sound Cable.
Pataki requested that the cable be kept on indefinitely to help stabilize electricity transmission - his responsibility as governor. In the wake of the largest power failure in American history August 14, Connecticut officials sought to deny New York assurance of reliable power without claiming any immediate environmental harm.
The most serious damage was done by Attorney General Richard Blumenthal. When he characterized the problem as New York's failure to "meet its own energy responsibilities to build generation capacity and transmission lines, as Connecticut and New England have done," he put Connecticut and New York on a course toward economic war - a war Connecticut could never win and should never wage against its far more powerful neighbor.
New Yorkers are hardly getting a low-cost ride on the backs of Connecticut consumers, which the U.S. Department of Energy recognized in its August 28 order to turn on the cable. Blumenthal should withhold any legal actions and negotiate with Cross Sound Cable to meet the state's permitting requirements.
Long island's power problems began when it scrapped a nuclear power plant after spending billions on it. The Shoreham project was abandoned mainly due to environmental and evacuation problems .
Blumenthal has also stood in the way of the Islander East gas transmission line to Long Island. Among the major consumers of that gas would be a clean, gas-powered electricity plant.
Blumenthal and others want to use instead an existing older pipeline. This was rejected by Long Island power officials in favor of a newer, more robust and redundant transmission system. The recent power failure supports their call for redundancy.
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