Dan Heath of the Plattsburgh Press Republican writes - “High-speed rail service between Montreal and New York City is one key way to make North America’s first green transportation corridor.

Pierre Arcand, minister of international relations for the government of Quebec, said that was one of the topics of discussion when Quebec Premier Jean Charest and New York Gov. David Paterson met two weeks ago.

Charest noted that former Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau called for high-speed rail in the 1970s.

High-speed rail between Buffalo and Albany is almost a certainty, Arcand said at a lunch sponsored by the Plattsburgh-North Country Chamber of Commerce and the Center for Canadian Studies at Plattsburgh State.”

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Mark Weiner of the Syracuse Post-Standard reports - “The Upstate New York congressional delegation today secured the first chunk of federal money needed to lay the groundwork for a high-speed rail line from Buffalo to Albany.

Five House members gained a subcommittee’s approval of nearly $4.6 million to improve tracks and grade crossing safety across Upstate — essential work for a high-speed passenger rail line. In Central New York, Rep. Dan Maffei, D-DeWitt, and Rep. Michael Arcuri, D-Utica, each secured $1 million to be used on track and safety improvements in their districts.”

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Albany’s Business Review reports that Gov. David Paterson has appointed a panel to monitor the state’s spending of the federal stimulus money.

The panel will be headed by State Inspector General Joseph Fisch and include:

• James Sheehan, the state’s Medicaid Inspector General

• Barry Kluger, inspector general for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority

• Galen Kirkland, commissioner of the state Division of Human Rights

By Jennifer K. Levine

Yesterday I attended a meeting hosted by the Business Council of NYS on the Future of Public-Private Partnerships in New York State. Samara Barend, Executive Director of the NYS Commission on State Asset Maximization summarized the Commission’s recent report and further explained how public-private partnerships can be a win-win scenario for New York State. Development of the natural gas resources in the Marcellus Shale was mentioned during the discussion of the state’s energy assets.

Concerns were raised regarding the regulatory roadblocks in the development of the Marcellus Shale in New York and the ease with which Pennsylvania is moving forward to develop their natural gas resources.

A couple of examples come to mind when I consider public-private partnerships and the recovery of natural gas in the Marcellus. First, is waste water treatment. As I’ve mentioned here before, New York State currently does not have the water treatment facilities necessary to treat waste water resulting from hydraulic fracturing. Partnering with municipal water treatment facilities to either construct new or retrofit existing treatment facilities might be a PPP project worth considering. Another partnering possibility is pipeline construction.

Portions of the pipelines will inevitably cross state property and the state could benefit from the resulting leases. Another idea which is being implemented in communities around the country is the conversion of local and county transportation and municipal vehicles to compressed natural gas. This would significantly reduce carbon emissions from diesel fuel while shifting to an energy source that is local and not subject to the price volatility of foreign oil. An example of one such partnership is the town of Huntington, NY partnering with Clean Energy of Seal Beach, CA.

It is exciting to consider the possibilities. Let’s hope that once the DEC issues its drilling regulations we will actually see some of them come to fruition.

Governor David A. Paterson today announced the certification of an additional $95.3 million for transportation projects through the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The investments will provide for essential highway and bridge repairs and other long-term improvements that will create an estimated 2,287 jobs across the State. These certifications bring the total number of ARRA-certified transportation projects to 251, for which the federal stimulus package will provide $713.1 million of the $1.2 billion in total project costs.

See the list.

The Albany Times Union reports - “National Grid officials signed a $1 billion contract with NorthEast Power Alliance on Wednesday to upgrade the British-based utility’s transmission infrastructure in upstate New York. The five-year project will involve replacing and upgrading lines, towers, substations and transformers. NEPA is a joint venture between three engineering and construction firms — AMEC, R.G. Vanderweil Engineers and Michels Corp. The signing was at National Grid’s local headquarters on Broadway in Albany. There, Masheed Saidi, National Grid’s executive vice president, said the project will create 500 jobs in upstate New York. She said power will be diverted around lines taken out of service.”

The Times Union of Albany reports - “GlobalFoundries Inc. purchased nearly 223 acres of land Wednesday at the Luther Forest Technology Campus in one of the most anticipated real estate closings ever for the Capital Region.

The price? About $7.8 million, or $35,000 an acre.

That’s a discount on the land that was negotiated as part of the state’s $1.2 billion incentive package for the project, which was first announced three years ago this month.

“We are ecstatic here,” said Michael Relyea, president of the Luther Forest Technology Campus Economic Development Corp., the nonprofit that owns the former logging forest being transformed into a business park. “We are very excited about where we are going in the future.”

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Companies want to help shape global warming legislation in Congress, figuring the right plan could boost profits.

The Los Angeles Times reports - “Sprawling across about 9,000 acres of rolling farmland in southwestern Indiana is one of the world’s biggest aluminum smelters, operated by Alcoa Inc. The maze of rectangular buildings and giant smokestacks consumes enough electricity to supply a city of 200,000 — power generated by burning more than 2 million tons of coal a year.

So it may be surprising that company executives are pushing Congress to pass a version of President Obama’s plan for combating global warming. After all, Obama wants to slap hefty fees on facilities like Alcoa’s that pump millions of tons of carbon dioxide and other pollutants into the air. Those fees could raise costs for the company and leave it vulnerable to foreign competitors.”

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The Ithaca Journal reports - “Federal stimulus money has had time to permeate communities like Tompkins County, but area business leaders see the financial boost as little more than a stop-gap for government, and a moot point for private businesses.”

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The New Yrok Times reports - “For months, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has been eager to stand beside labor leaders and contractors to announce projects that would employ thousands of construction workers. News conferences were scheduled first for April 16 and then for Wednesday.

But those dates came and went, in part because many powerful developers balked, threatening to tell anyone who asked that the soon-to-be-announced “project labor agreement” between builders and construction unions, with labor givebacks, was worth far less to developers than what was claimed in a press release. Further, they said it would probably not lead to a new burst of construction….

The agreement, which claims to cut project costs by “an average of 16 to 21 percent,” is all but finished and a news conference still expected. More than a dozen projects have lined up to participate. But, developers and bankers say, that does not necessarily mean that any of them will proceed. The matter has become an object lesson in the intricate dance steps of New York politicians, real estate executives and union officials…”

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