Friday, January 30, 2009

Parting with Poletti

From the NY Times:

Assemblyman Michael N. Gianaris sent a letter this week accusing the New York Power Authority of trying to keep one of the city’s dirtiest power plants open beyond the January 2010 deadline for shutting it.

The power authority — which provides electricity to city agencies, the Port Authority and other large users — denied the accusation and said it would abide by the 2003 agreement to shutter the 885-megawatt Charles Poletti power plant in Astoria, Queens.

To make up for the loss of the Poletti plant, the authority opened a 500-megawatt plant next door in 2005. It is also working with a company that has proposed building a cable under the Hudson River to transport electricity from plants in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland, where energy prices are generally lower. And the agency signed a deal with Astoria Energy L.L.C., which is supposed to provide power from a new plant it is building in Queens.

But Mr. Gianaris, who represents northwestern Queens, said that the two projects might never get built because of technical complications, cost overruns and tight credit. He argued that the authority had long known of these problems and might use them as excuses to keep the Poletti plant open longer.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

A smaller and smaller group of people believe this guy.

If the Power Authority is at fault, as he blaimed in 2006, he has had three years to clean things up.

He has done nothing. All he does is make press release after another secure that his senseless blather will be coddled by a press in the clubhouse's pocket.

He owes an apology to the hard working men and women of Con Ed, who unlike him, did not hide out in an airconditioned office during the black out.

Anonymous said...

Although this plant is terrible for our lungs, we probably cannot spare the generation-capacity. If we have black-outs, people will die, especially during heatwaves or when crime is rampant.

If the plant cannot be closed, can it be retrofitted to reduce particulates and pollution emission?

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