The Ithaca Journal reports on a seminar that will inform Southern Tier residents about New York land law and gas drilling.

Reporter Jon Campbell writes: “About 60 people are expected to attend a seminar Wednesday about New York land law and how it relates to the Marcellus Shale and the Southern Tier natural gas rush, according to the company hosting the event.

The seminar is set to run from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Holiday Inn Arena on Hawley Street. Fifty-six people have already registered, and a promotersaid she expects a few walk-ups on Wednesday.

“The purpose for this program is for continuing education for the professionals, such as attorneys, engineers, surveyors, landmen, and title personnel,” said Marcia Mason, a program planner for Wisconsin-based HalfMoon Seminars. “It is a very current issue, so I know it generates a lot of interest.”

Five attorneys will lead four separate sessions during the seminar, each split up to discuss a different part of pertinent land laws.

Read more.

NYSEG and RG&E have partnered with EnerPath to offer a Small Business Energy Efficiency program in most of their services areas. Eligible businesses, with demand of less than 100 kilowatts, will receive a free energy assessment to measure their energy efficiency. As part of this program NYSEG or RG&E will cover 70% of the cost of recommended lighting upgrades for their customers.

Read more.

Steve Orr and Jim Stimson of the Democrat and Chronicle, take a long look at our aging power grid and point out what is needed to bring it up to where is should be.

Issues old and new

“The grid. It is what National Geographic, in its July issue, called the world’s biggest machine. There are three different parts of it in North America. That portion known as the Eastern Interconnect includes New York — where the very first pieces of the nation’s grid were built 128 years ago in Manhattan at Thomas Edison’s direction. The father of America’s electric industry remains on the minds of grid managers these days.

“If Alexander Graham Bell came back to life today, he wouldn’t recognize the telecommunications industry. If Thomas Edison came back to life today and he looked at the electric grid he invented 100 years ago, he would recognize it. He could probably fix it,” said Robert B. Catell, a former chairman of National Grid U.S. who now chairs the New York State Smart Grid Consortium. “I tell it as a joke. People don’t really laugh.”

New and old issues continue to vex the state’s grid managers: Growth. Maintenance. Storms. Weather, trees and vegetation. Consumer demand. New gadgets that demand more power.

RG&E, like its sister company, New York State Electric and Gas Corp., is only a small part of the international power grid, the one that caught our collective attention when, on Aug. 14, 2003, cascading failures in Ohio caused outages from there through Ontario all the way to the Big Apple. Almost 90 percent of New York state residents, including many in Rochester, lost power.

Years after that worrisome 2003 blackout, problems continue, albeit on a less dramatic scale.

And while RG&E has its detractors when the lights go out, the electricity-delivery company gets high marks from the state PSC for reliability.

But what can make the grid better, more efficient, cheaper and smarter?”

TO read more click here.

Gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo released the second in a series of policy books, this one devoted to energy policy. Regarding development of the Marcellus Shale, Coumo seems to support development as long as it is studied thoroughly and done in an environmentally sensitive manner. He cites both the DEC review and the EPA study and seems willing to rely on these assessments to determine whether drilling could be done safely. The EPA study will not be completed until sometime in 2012 at the earliest and it is very troubling that we may be waiting another two years before permitting and drilling begins.

The Marcellus Shale discussion appears in the “Economic Development” chapter of the policy book but there seems to be a disconnect between the idea of developing the Marcellus Shale and benefitting from the resulting economic uplift (good) and actually drilling for gas (bad). The NYS Senate vote on the drilling moratorium this week also reflects this disconnect. We want lowcost energy produced at home and the resulting economic and security benefits but at zero cost. Anyone who has taken even one economics class understands that there is a cost to everything we do. In the case of developing the Marcellus Shale the trick is to balance the enormous economic uplift and job creation against the environmental risks. This has been done around the country and other states are prospering as a result of natural gas development. Let’s hope that if candidate Cuomo becomes governor he will weigh these risks against the economic benefits and determine that proceeding with safe, clean drilling needs to happen now. The depressed Upstate communities cannot continue to wait much longer.

The following is the excerpt from the Cuomo’s energy policy book regarding Marcellus Shale development:

“Any Drilling in the Marcellus Shale must be Environmentally Sensitive and Safe
Because so much of our supply of energy is based on natural gas fuel, ensuring a supply of lowcost natural gas is important to New York. The Marcellus Shale could contribute to New York’s natural gas supply, but development needs to be highly sensitive to environmental concerns. The economic potential from the Marcellus shale could provide a badly needed boost to the economy of the Southern Tier and even many environmentalists agree we want to produce more domestic natural gas that reduces the need for environmentally damaging fuel sources such as coal. We need to explore how drilling can be done in a way that is consistent with environmental concerns. The State’s Department of Environmental Conservation, as well as the federal Environmental Protection Agency, are currently studying the effects of drilling in the Marcellus Shale region. Through that assessment, New York State must ensure that, if and when the Shale’s natural gas is obtained, it does not come at the expense of human health or have adverse environmental impacts. In particular, it is critical that no drilling be conducted that might negatively affect any existing watershed and that best practices in drilling are adopted and enforced by the State.

Therefore, any drilling in the Marcellus Shale must be environmentally sensitive and safe. These reviews must demonstrate that health and environmental risks are adequately addressed and protected. However, existing watersheds are sacrosanct and Andrew Cuomo would not support any drilling that would threaten the State’s major sources of drinking water.”

Jeff Arron writes on pressconnects.com - “While the larger energy companies that formerly drilled for natural gas in the Trenton-Black River formation have abandoned those activities for the more favorable drilling rules in Pennsylvania, smaller companies are creeping back in to drill in the Southern Tier.

With names like Anschutz Exploration and Epsilon Energy USA and MegaEnergy Operating Inc., the drilling companies are not only continuing to explore the Trenton-Black River (TBR) formation, which lies at depths of 10,000 to 12,000 feet — beneath the Marcellus and Utica shale — they are also sinking their drill bits in the Oriskany sandstone formation.

Found just above the TBR, Oriskany sandstone was formed about 400 million years ago and runs roughly from West Virginia and into Pennsylvania and New York. Geologists estimate it holds about 11 billion cubic feet of gas.

While a good well in a sandstone formation like the Oriskany may produce between 500,000 and 1 million cubic feet of gas per day, a well in Marcellus Shale will ikely produce 10 times that amount, geologists say.”

To read more click here.

A bi-partisan coalition of lawmakers today introduced new legislation the U.S. House of Representatives that would provide an investment tax credit for new innovative technology that produces clean, zero-emission electricity from waste heat generated by industrial processes. The Heat is Power Act, sponsored by Representatives Paul Tonko (NY-21), Jay Inslee (WA-01), Shelly Berkley (D-NV-01) and Ron Paul (TX-14), would help stimulate growth in the waste heat to electricity market and create new jobs.

“This tax credit creates an incentive for a renewable technology with the potential to create jobs and allow American companies to export to other countries,” said Congressman Paul Tonko (NY-21). “It’s critical that we embrace these new innovations in clean energy that will help lessen our dependence on fossil fuels and reduce energy costs.”

“We shouldn’t allow clean energy produced by waste to go wasted,” said Rep. Jay Inslee (WA-01). “By implementing this policy, we will be able to incentivize the deployment of technologies that can capture thermal energy from waste and convert it to electricity.”

The Heat is Power Act would modify sections 45 and 48 of the U.S. tax code to include waste to heat and provide a 30% investment tax credit for the installation of the technology in industrial settings. American companies have created technology that can harness heat waste from smokestacks and other industrial processes such as oil and gas production and turn that energy into zero-emissions electricity. The tax credit will put this technology on the same footing as other renewables such as wind and solar power, and help develop a new, American clean energy industry that will lead to job growth.

The development of a domestic waste heat market will also position the U.S. to capture the global market in clean energy exports and create manufacturing jobs here in America for decades to come.

It is critical that the legislature adopt a new, statewide economic development power program in the 2010 session.

The Power for Jobs and the Energy Cost Savings Benefit programs expired on June 2, 2010, leaving several hundred energy-intensive businesses facing higher costs and uncertainty regarding future power supply and prices.

Kenneth Adams, President & CEO of The Business Council of New York State, Inc. stated, “New York needs a permanent economic development power program now. Competitively priced power is crucial for employers and workers across New York, and particularly for upstate manufacturers. We support legislation that has already passed the Senate with broad, bipartisan support, and deserves broad Assembly support as well. A permanent power program will support hundreds of energy-intensive businesses and tens of thousands of high paying jobs.”

We strongly support Assembly approval of S.8065, which has already passed the Senate with broad, bipartisan support (vote of 59 to 2).

This legislation includes key provisions necessary to support high paying jobs and promote new capital and energy efficiency investments, resulting in significant economic returns to the state. These include:

• A new, permanent program to replace the Power for Jobs and Economic Development Power programs that will provide predictability and certainty for program participants.
• A 910 MW program that will give the state more economic development power resources than are available under expiring programs, that can accommodate new program participants statewide.
• Allocation-based power benefits and long-term contracts of up to seven years that will provide competitive, stable electric power prices to energy intensive businesses.
• Eligibility criteria that assure significant, long-term economic return to the state, including the number and value (wages and benefits) of jobs created and retained, investments in capital equipment and energy efficiency, the significance of energy costs to a business’ competitiveness, and the local economic significance of the facility.

To read more click here.

In response to Governor Paterson’s announcement that he is calling the Legislature back to address unfinished business, statewide business groups have joined together in urging the Assembly to immediately take up and pass Energize New York. Energize New York, a long term fully sustainable energy economic development power program bill, has been endorsed by the Administration, and previously passed the Senate this session with overwhelming support. To date, Assembly leadership has refused to bring the critical bill to the floor for a vote.

This issue has risen in urgency with the already expired short term Power for Jobs, Energy Cost Savings benefits and High Load Factor Programs that were discontinued over a month ago. If the current programs expire without a long term solution passed, businesses statewide will be heavily impacted, seeing an immediate sharp rise in their electricity costs, already some of the highest in the nation. If not addressed immediately, a lapse in energy benefits, coupled with the high costs of doing business in New York State and our current economic crisis will cause catastrophic results to the state’s economy, including employee layoffs, downsizing, relocation and potential closings.

Energize New York has already received praise and overwhelming support from businesses and economic development organizations statewide. Supporters understand that a long term program will assist New York State in weaving through this current economic crisis by supporting jobs and critical businesses that sustain our economy, produce vast economic benefits to the State, allow businesses to make long term investments, and make New York State more competitive in retaining businesses to open or relocate to our State. The Energize New York bill also contains substantial retroactive language, meaning businesses would be held harmless for any high costs of electricity they may encounter during the current lapse in the preexisting short term Power for Jobs programs.

Of additional importance, the Energize New York bill has received overwhelming bipartisan support in the Senate, passing with a vote of 59-2, with cosponsors Senator Aubertine (D-Cape Vincent) and Senator Maziarz (R-Newfane) leading the charge. The Administration also publicly endorses Energize New York. Governor Paterson made this point known when he released his list of unfinished and important items to be addressed this week, and included Energize New York as one of these issues.

To read more click  statewide-to-assembly-pass-energize-ny-07-27-2010

Frank Lovece writes on Habitatmag.com - “Co-op and condo boards and residents can get ready to breathe easier — and to possibly pay through the nose. New York State Governor David Paterson on Tuesday followed a path blazed by Maine and Connecticut as he signed into law legislation mandating low-sulfur heating oil.

Beginning July 2012, the sulfur content of No. 2 heating oil will be limited to no more than 15 parts per million, down from the approximately 2,000 to 15,000 parts per million typical today. Achieving this will require oil companies to refine No. 2 oil more so than now. Whether this will result in higher costs for consumers depends on a plethora of factors, including the supply of oil generally as well as economies of scale as refineries ramp up to produce low-sulfur oil for, now, three Northeast states…

Among the opposition was the Business Council of New York State, which stated that the measure “will increase prices on oil providers who will be forced to make major capital investments to meet the requirements of this bill. These costs will ultimately get passed on to consumers.”"

To read more click here.

“The New York metro area will have dirtier air, higher energy prices and thousands more unemployed workers if the state insists on cooling towers for the Indian Point nuclear power plant, speakers said Tuesday,” reports Jim Fitzgerald of The Associated Press.

“Testimony at a public hearing a few miles from the plant was overwhelmingly critical of a state ruling that said Indian Point has been devastating the Hudson River ecosystem through its use of up to 2.5 billion gallons of river water per day to make steam and cool its reactors.

Screens keep out most full-grown fish. But baby fish, fish eggs and other small life forms are sucked in and killed. Some of the fish that hit the screens also die or are injured.

“I feel sorry for the fish, I really do,” said Jerry Gershner, a real estate agent from Ossining who predicted higher taxes and other living costs. “But the person that I most feel sorry for is me, my family and my neighbors.”

Read the full story.