William J. Kemble in The Daily Freeman reports that the four developers competing for state Public Service Commission approval to upgrade the electric transmission grid all filed revised proposals Jan. 7 that include alternatives to adding transmission lines and towers in Greene, Columbia, and Dutchess counties. “The alternatives ... would, for example, simply [enhance] some of the existing lines,” Central Hudson spokesman John Maserjian said. “One of the proposals is to remove existing towers instead of [adding] parallel to existing towers ... and replace that single tower with a new tower of the same height that could have two sets of lines.” The New York Transco filing contains up to nine alternatives for new lines and equipment that do not expand the existing corridor or require land acquisition. The Public Service Commission has had much local feedback about three proposals that would add a third 345-kilovolt electric power line largely following an existing corridor from Leeds in Greene County through Columbia County and south through the Dutchess County towns of Milan, Clinton, Hyde Park, and Pleasant Valley. A fourth plan would largely use an existing corridor that runs from Hudson to Kingston and then goes south to Ramapo. Read the full story in The Daily Freeman.