Niagara Power

For the last fifty years, the NYS power authority has had the right to operate the Niagara hydroelectric plant, pursuant to an act of Congress. The original 50-year FERC license is due to expire. The authority, which like all NYS authorities, is little more than a Pataki patronage mill with no oversight, is trying to ram a deal down the throats of local governments and the businesses that benefit from low-cost energy certificates.

Brian Higgins is having none of it.

He introduced a bill in Congress that would re-authorize the state to operate Niagara at a cost of $1 billion. That’s $20 million/year versus the $2 million/year the authority is demanding.

The bill is a direct challenge to Republican Gov. George E. Pataki, whose appointees supervise the Power Authority.

Higgins said he is not sending a copy of the bill to the authority, which has refused to negotiate with Buffalo and Erie County about raising its original offer of $2 million a year.

The Erie County Legislature and Buffalo Common Council have turned down the authority’s offer as inadequate. These rejections, in addition to a possible lawsuit from Niagara University, which wants more compensation, complicate the authority’s plans.

The authority wants to get a renewal of its 50-year license from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and leave Congress out of the process.

To get around the need for an act of Congress to renew the license in 2007, the authority needs a “consensus” to present to FERC this August. Right now, it doesn’t have it.

Higgins insisted that he is not introducing the bill on July 11 as a leverage to increase the authority’s offer.

“I’m convinced that the best vehicle to address all the issues on relicensing is an act of Congress, as it was 50 years ago,” he said.

“I have already conferred with the leadership of FERC on this,” he said.

The $1 billion demanded in the legislation comes from $10 million a year to Buffalo and Erie County, compounded by 3 percent each year.

Other major provisions of the Higgins bill would require the authority to:

• Pay a total of 1 percent of the gross sales of power from the Lewiston project annually to the the industrial development agencies of Erie, Niagara, Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties.

The money would be used to help high energy users pay their power bills and retain employment levels.

•Create a security zone around the project, in part to protect the Niagara University campus.

• Provide resources to first responders serving the project to prepare for terrorists attacks on the project.

• Reveal all the financial arrangements involving the sale of Niagara power to other municipalities and states.

“When the authority’s books are transparent,” Higgins said, “the facts will show that an increase in home electricity rates is not needed to compensate the city and county.”

• Renew the replacement power program in the original 1957 agreement and reaffirm that current users of the power in the region can rely on continued supply of low-cost power.

Higgins said the authority is holding the renewal of these contracts over the heads of local manufacturers to pressure them into opposing the city’s and county’s demands for more compensation.

The legislation also would require the secretary of energy to conduct an audit of Niagara Project finances since its inception, and annually, to find out where its revenue goes.

We have a wealth of natural resources locally. It’s time we stopped getting cheated by others with respect to their use.

And whether you’re a republican or democrat: if someone’s going up against a NYS authority, chances are you should be on the side opposing whatever the authority wants.

Not only should we abolish county governments, but abolishing authorities and replacing them with entities that are responsible to and answerable to State government would also be a positive development. As it stands now, they’re just little fiefdoms.