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Guilderland board approves plan to run underground lines to deliver power to NYC
Aug 13, 2020 2:00 pm
Melissa Hale-Spencer is reporting for the Altamont Enterprise the Guilderland Town Board August 4, approved a resolution to allow the Champlain Hudson River Power Express Inc. to run underground lines through the town to deliver power from Canada to the greater New York City area. The measure carried on a vote of 4 to 1, with board member Laurel Bohl the only dissenter. “The people that oppose this are not just Canadians,” said Bohl. She named the Sierra Club, Hudson Riverkeeper, New York electric companies, New York clean-energy companies, and 22 labor unions as opposing the project. “Hydroelectricity from large dams is not really renewable energy,” Bohl said, citing a Harvard study that found “drastic negative effects on fish, forests, and the cultural identity of the indigenous community.” Town Supervisor Peter Barber named the federal and state agencies that have approved the project and said, “Governor Cuomo made it clear back on May 24 that these sorts of infrastructure projects are not only good for the economy, they’re good for the environment but also are necessary to restart the economy.” The $3 billion project, proposed by Transmission Developers Inc., has been in the works since 2008 and construction is expected to begin in 2021. A 1,000-megawatt high voltage direct current, HVDC, line will be buried underground in Guilderland, largely along railroad rights-of-way, according to Transmission Developers Inc. The cable is to be buried approximately 5 feet underground within conduits and is expected to have an operating and taxable life of at least 40 years, TDI says. The project route in New York begins in the town of Putnam in Washington Co., continuing south through the city of Saratoga Springs, into the greater Albany area and further south through Ravena, Coxsackie, Athens and the town of Catskill, where it will enter the Hudson River. Read the full story in the Altamont Enterprise.