Melanie Lekocevic Columbia-Greene Media a tax incentive package for a $177 million energy project is expected to be approved by the Greene County Industrial Development Agency at its next meeting on October. 21. The Champlain Hudson Power Express project is slated to run through Greene County. No comments in opposition to the project were offered at a public hearing held by the IDA on October 13. The package includes use, recording and mortgage tax exemptions and a Payment in Lieu of Taxes agreement, as well as a community host fund for several towns and villages, IDA Executive Director Rene Van Schaack said. The Champlain Hudson Power Express transmission line would transport 1,000 to 1,200 megawatts of electricity via buried power lines from the Canadian border to New York City, traversing Greene County and 16 other jurisdictions. The transmission line would pass through Athens, Catskill, Coxsackie and New Baltimore, and extend a total distance of 333 miles from Canada to New York City. In Greene County, the project will follow the CSX right-of-way for the entire length, except for a small area in Catskill where the line will come out of the public right-of-way onto local roads, under the Catskill Creek and back out to the right-of-way, VanSchaack said. “It will proceed south until Smith’s Landing, where the line will come off the railroad right-of-way and go back into the Hudson River at the Lehigh Cement Plant, where the last mile of the line will be under the river through Greene County,” he said. The package includes a community benefit fund that will benefit the towns of New Baltimore, Coxsackie, Athens, and Catskill, as well as the villages of Coxsackie and Catskill. That fund will remain in place for 30 years, concurrent with the PILOT agreement. The fund is designed to offset the economic impact of the power line on those communities. The public comment period on the incentive package remains open until the close of business Tue., Oct. 19. Anyone wishing to comment can submit a letter or email to rene [at] greeneida [dot] com, VanSchaack said. Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.