New York should put more emphasis on solar power. And keep Indian Point open. And shatter the strata west of the Hudson to free the natural gas there.
Those were among the messages for the Governor”™s Energy Planning Board during a public hearing held recently in New Paltz on the state”™s draft energy plan. The chairman of the Assembly energy committee attended and among other points expressed strong support for tapping the natural gas potential of the Marcellus Shale formations in pursuit of energy independence for the state.
Gov. Paterson appointed the board to create a state energy plan. A draft plan was released in August 2009 and public hearings held statewide to garner input. The eighth in a string of nine public hearings at different locales around the state came to SUNY-New Paltz on Sept. 24.
About two dozen speakers generally praised the plan, but also offered specific suggestions on ways it could be improved before a final plan is released, now scheduled for November. The plan has a 10-year planning horizon The state”™s last energy plan was adopted in 2002.
The plan outlines five objectives and five strategies for attaining them. The objectives are ensuring a reliable energy and transportation systems, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, ensuring affordable energy for residents and businesses, reducing health and environmental effects connected with energy production and improving the state”™s energy independence and fuel diversity.
The five strategies to meet those objectives involve increasing energy efficiency, development of in-state energy supplies, investing in energy and transportation infrastructure, stimulating innovation and creating partnerships.
“The plan is a remarkable step that puts us in the forefront of energy planning among the 50 states,” said Assemblyman Kevin Cahill, chairman of the Assembly energy committee, addressing the public hearing. He said however, it needs greater emphasis on distributed generation systems and improvement of net metering laws that allow homes and businesses to send energy back to the grid from solar or wind arrays.
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Cahill urged the Energy Planning Board to be more ambitious, calling the plan to have the state receive 45 percent of its energy in renewable form by the year 2015 a laudable goal, but saying the true aim should be for the state to attain energy independence.
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Cahill also expressed support for allowing development of the Marcellus shale deposits calling the move, “One of the linchpins for energy independence in New York.”
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The Marcellus shale deposits are deeply buried formations of ancient organic material that harbor natural gas in an area stretching through New York”™s southern tier, into Pennsylvania and part of New Jersey. The idea of tapping the resource is controversial because the methodology, hydraulic fracturing ”“ called “fracking” ”“ requires a mixture of water and toxic chemicals be injected under high pressure to depths as deep as 10,000 feet underground to fracture the shale formation and free the natural gas contained there. The technique is believed to have disrupted water wells in other locales where it has been used and also has raised fears that the toxins involved will ruin aquifers. In Texas there have been accusations that fracking shale beds is causing earthquakes.
Cahill noted the state Department of Environmental Conservation is now reviewing proposals to utilize the resource for the state using “environmentally sound extraction.”
His support was echoed in a statement by Michael John of Chesapeake Energy, which discussed the jobs and economic development potential of natural gas extraction. He said that if all the natural gas theoretically bound up in the formation were freed it could meet the nation”™s needs for 14 years.
Using the sun as a source of heating buildings and hot water is an often overlooked resource, Ron Kamen, CEO of EarthKind Solar told the energy board. Heat and hot water systems make up about half of state energy use, he said, and urged greater efforts to promote the non-polluting and energy efficient method for heating homes and business.
And he said electricity derived from solar power is rapidly declining in price as a commodity and said the state should set a target of creating 2000 megawatts of electricity from solar apparatus by the year 2015. That is the same amount that Indian Point nuclear power plant provides at full power. He called the target “aggressive but achievable.”
His calls was echoed by at least three other speakers during the hearing, all of whom said the state must prime the pump of solar power for perhaps five more years, through such methods as providing education and training money for solar technicians. After that, they said, the combination of market forces and technological breakthroughs will ensure solar power”™s place within the power grid.
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The draft energy plan calls for the closure of the Indian Point nuclear power plant, which supplies about 2000 mega watts of power when at full capacity.
Patrick Moore, however, founder of consulting firm Greenspirit Ltd. and a founding member of Greenpeace, has now has taken an aggressive posture in favor of nuclear power. In his Greenpeace environmental activist days he told the hearing, “We concluded incorrectly that everything nuclear is evil.”
Moore said that to close Indian Point would remove a proven and safe source of energy from the power-hungry southeastern New York markets.
His comments were echoed by Al Samuels, President of the Rockland Business Association, as well as Joseph Karras, a union official with the regional council of carpenters.
Though the verbal public hearings are all finished, the Energy Planning Board will accept written comments until Oct. 19. A copy of the draft plan and more information can be obtained on line at www.nysenergyplan.com.
