The Buffalo Niagara Partnership strongly urges members of the Assembly Energy Committee to support A. 10053 as a critical first step toward achieving a permanent economic development power program in New York.
There are currently four proposals (A. 10053, S. 7138, S.7339 and the Governor’s Energize NY Program) to redeploy Rural and Domestic (R+D) hydropower for economic development – a concept the Partnership has strongly advocated for many years. The Assembly Energy Committee – by supporting A. 10053 – would send a strong signal that R+D hydropower has the greatest positive impact on the state’s residents when used for economic development.
Moreover, it is our hope that support of A. 10053 by the committee would lead to productive negotiation among all bill sponsors, with the end result a permanent low cost power program – using R+D hydropower -- enacted into law this year.
The Power for Jobs program as it currently exists – as a “cash program” -- is unsustainable. New York businesses pay among the nation’s highest energy bills. Upstate, where the economy is anchored by manufacturing industries and other large energy users, the sting of those high costs is especially strong. Other parts of the nation have used lower energy rates to entice existing Upstate companies to move, and site selectors, who might have brought new jobs and investment to our regions of the state, are similarly lured away. The state needs a permanent program.
While the Partnership has concerns with some details of all of the proposals mentioned above, we enthusiastically support their intent: to use R+D hydropower to sustain the kind of economic development power program our state needs to support its existing employer base, and attract new investment to New York.
It is critical that a new program yield the maximum economic benefit to the state and its residents. We support proposals to give ESD/DED a greater role in the power allocation process, and urge streamlining the application process for greater ease, consistency and transparency. The Partnership supports selection criteria that does more than focus on job creation and retention, but prioritizes total payroll, capital investment, significance of impact on local economy, consistency with local development plans, energy efficiency and net economic benefit to NYS (e.g. role in the supply chain). We believe contracts should be at least seven years, and implemented in a rolling renewal process.
The Partnership would support the establishment of a mechanism to assist non-corporate farmers and those low income households as defined by the federal Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP) that currently benefit from R+D hydropower.
While the Partnership – which represents some 2,500 New York State employers with a workforce of nearly 250,000 – has concerns with specific components of A. 10053, namely its reliance on energy efficiency measures to finance the program, we urge support as an important first step to what we hope will be successful negotiations to yield R+D hydropower’s redeployment for economic development. We offer our assistance during that process.
© 2006-2012 Buffalo Niagara Partnership. All rights reserved.
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