2.9.22 - Sides align on under-the-Hudson power line to NYC
' Environmentalists and power plant operators found themselves on the same page this week, with both groups lining up against a proposed power line that would bring hydroelectricity from northern Quebec to New York City via a cable beneath the Hudson River.
Favoring the proposed Champlain Hudson Power Express project, though, are New York City officials, and business development groups, including the Albany-based Center for Economic Growth.
Monday was the deadline for comments to the state Public Service Commission on the CHPE and another similar power line, the Clean Path NY, which would also feed New York City.
CHPE is owned by the Blackstone Group investment firm and could carry up to 1,250 megawatts of power by 2025 if approved.
Clean Path is a consortium of the New York Power Authority, which operates large upstate hydroplants, Invenergy, and energyRE, a solar power firm. That 1,300-megawatt line would run from Delaware County to the Hudson and then on to the city.
The idea behind both lines is to bring clean energy from hydropower, or new solar and wind power facilities, to feed New York City’s energy needs, which currently are met largely by a series of aging fossil fuel plants.
CHPE appears to have sparked the most controversy, because it relies on imported power, albeit from Canada, and to worries about burying a line under much of the Hudson River. '