Courtroom Support for Seneca Lake Defenders: Wed. Nov. 18th 5pm

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Nov 142015
 

 

What: Please come out to support 41 Seneca Lake Defenders at their pre-trial hearings and arraignments, on Wednesday, November 18, 2015 at 5:00pm.Wear blue, bear witness, and offer your silent support inside the courtroom.

Where: Town of Reading Court
3914 County Route 28, Reading, NY 14891

When: Wednesday Nov. 18th, 5pm

Who: Peggy Abbott, Shirley Barton, Richard Battaglia, Robyn Bem, Dan Burgevin, Lyndsay Clark, Nancy Cook, John Dennis, Josh Dolan,Tessa Sage Flores, Zan Gerrity, Lyn Gerry, Ira Goldstein, Martha Hennessy, Gabrielle Illava, Margaret McCasland, Barbara Pease, Mariah Plumlee, Cynda Poley, Stephanie Redmond, James Ricks, Todd Saddler, Laura Salamendra, Coby Schultz, Mark Scibilia-Carver, Barbara Smith, Ba Stopha, Ann Sullivan, Michael Bucci, Tricia Campbell
Hannah Dickinson, Andrew Feron, Martha Fischer, Ben Guthrie, Larry Hirschberger, Kevin Kunster, Stephen Marcus, Janet McCue, Victoria Rasmussen, Dianne Roe, Camille Tischler.

 

 

Comment Period Extended for Greenidge Power Plant

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Nov 142015
 
Good news! The comment period for the Greenidge power plant on Seneca Lake has been extended.
Sending in a comment is like voting: it shows our elected officials and our public agencies which direction public opinion is trending. Those who seek to refuel a decommissioned 1937 power plant with fracked gas and call it “environmentally beneficial” need to hear back from us.
Here is a quick report on this week’s Procedural Conference in Albany: Six Seneca Lake Defenders were present in Albany on November 10th: Sandra Steingraber, John Dennis, Bill Kitchen, Irene Weiser, Mary Beth Gamba, and Debb Guard. They were joined by Lindsay Speer and Rachel Treichler, an attorney with the Committee To Preserve The Finger Lakes.

Some of their conference highlights: Judge Michelle L. Phillips made no rulings and is taking everything under advisement. Comments from the public are encouraged and can be submitted for at least another week.

Rachel Treichler, along with John Dennis and Irene Weiser, raised important concerns and contested assertions by the applicant pertaining to public necessity, threats to drinking water, and whether or not the Greenidge plant is “mothballed” or “retired.”

A key point on which this project should be challenged is whether this is an existing power plant that is restarting, or a new source. Given that the former owners told NYSEG and the Public Service Commission that they were retiring the plant and planning on selling it for scrap, and the new owners are repowering with natural gas rather than coal, Rachel Treichler made a compelling argument that it should be treated as a new source. All evidence of the intentions and realities of the closing of the plant are valuable comments at this time.

1) Please submit individual written comments to the Public Service Commission. The deadline for submitting comments has been extended. We need to take this opportunity to express ourselves as a community and as a region. Feel free to use WASL’s comments as a leaping off point for your own.

Here’s how:

  • Address your comments to: The Honorable Kathleen H. Burgess, Secretary Public Service Commission Three Empire State Plaza Albany, New York 12223-1350
  • In the first paragraph, refer to these petition numbers: Case 15-E-0516 – Greenidge Generation, LLC; Case 15-G-0571 – Greenidge Pipeline, LLC and Greenidge Pipeline Properties Corporation; Case 15-T-0586 – Greenidge Pipeline, LLC, and Greenidge Pipeline Properties Corporation. All together, these ask for for lightened regulation, pipeline construction, and an expedited certificate of public convenience and necessity.
  • If you believe, as we do, that further hearings are necessary—as evidenced by the significant opposition to the public hearing in Dresden, which ran so late that many people had to leave before their names were called to speak—please say so.
  • State your view about whether the Public Service Commission should approve or deny the three petitions related to the repowering of the Greenidge plant and the related building of the 4.5-mile pipeline.
  • If you have any special expertise or background knowledge to offer, share it. If you rely on Seneca Lake as your drinking water source or breathe the air that blows over it, feel free to describe your relationship to the lake. If you are working to keep fossil fuels in the ground and promote renewable energy, talk about your efforts.
  • As always, be respectful, plain-spoken, and to the point.

Public Hearing for Dresden ‘Zombie’ Power Plant, Nov. 4, 2015

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Oct 302015
 

Just in time for Halloween, a decommissioned, coal-burning power plant north of Crestwood on Seneca Lake is being brought back to life, and plans are being laid to convert it to natural gas (methane). Calling all defenders to don their dress blues and attend a public hearing next Wednesday!

The old Greenidge (Dresden) Power Plant–located just 20 miles north of Crestwood’s gates and shuttered for four long years—may be repowered with natural gas. And, yes, this plant is connected by a series of pipelines to Crestwood’s Seneca Lake Methane Storage Facility. At the very least, if it is approved, it will create further demand in the region for natural gas.

The NY Public Service Commission will be holding an information session and public hearing next Wednesday on the proposal to repower the Dresden power plant on Seneca Lake.. We need all lovers of Seneca lake in attendance!

Please consider offering oral testimony. Or, just wear blue and show up. We need a showing of concerned citizens opposed to the further build-out of fracked-gas infrastructure in the Finger Lakes.

Date: Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Times:

6:00 PM Informational Forum

7:00 PM Public Statement

Hearing Location:

Dresden Fire House

3 Firehouse Avenue

Dresden, New York 14441

Lindsay Speer is working on creating talking points and will get them to those planning to attend early next week. Please let her know if you plan to speak by emailing her at lindsayspeer@gmail.com.

The proposal involves repowering the former coal power plant, which has been shuttered for four years, with natural gas. A pipeline will be built to connect the power plant to the Empire Connector pipeline, which in turn connects with the Millennium Pipeline in Corning. Crestwood’s methane storage operation is also connected to the Millennium Pipeline. This section of the Millennium and the Empire Connector pipelines can flow bi-directionally, depending on where the demand for natural gas is the greatest, which means that the power plant can create demand for gas stored at Seneca Lake.

We need to tell the Public Service Commission that fossil fuel power plants are not the future we want in New York.

Currently before the Public Service Commission are three petitions by the power plant’s owner. The relevant documents are linked to below for your own research.

CASE 15-E-0516

Petition of Greenidge Generation LLC for an Original Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity and Lightened Regulation.

CASE 15-G-0571 – Petition of Greenidge Pipeline LLC and Greenidge Pipeline Properties Corporation for an Expedited Original Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity and for Incidental or Lightened Regulation.

CASE 15-T-0586 – Application by Greenidge Pipeline LLC; Greenidge Pipeline Properties Corporation to Construct a Fuel Gas Transmission Line, Containing Approximately 24,318 Feet of 8” Steel Pipeline, Located in the Towns of Milo and Torrey, Yates County.

Written comments will also be accepted if submitted by November 9.