CONFERENCE: Focus is Justice in Huntley Plant Transition

Clean Air  -- Organizing for Health and Justice

Presents a Conference 

Just Transition: Good Jobs and Healthy Communities

Conference seeks Justice in Huntley Power Plant Transition

The conference will feature some of the nation’s leading experts in movement building, coal finance, just transition, renewable energy, and sustainable and democratic community development.

The conference kicks off at 10:00am on June 7th and will conclude with a happy hour at 5:30pm. It will be hosted at the NYS United Teachers offices at 270 Essjay Road in Williamsville.

Participation is free, but registration is required and space is limited. Register today at www.JustTransition.com.

Presenters include:

Les Leopold, the director of the Labor Institute, strategic consultant to the Blue-Green Alliance, and author of author of How to Make a Million Dollars an Hour: Why Financial Elites get away with siphoning off America’s Wealth.

Jean Pogge is the CEO of Delta Institute that is leading the Fisk and Crawford Reuse Task Force, a committee that will work to solicit community input and economic development and job creation alternatives for the land on which the Fisk and Crawford power plant used to be.

Sean Sweeney is the Director and founder of the Global Labor Institute, a program of the Cornell School of Industrial and Labor Relations and works with Trade Unions for Energy Democracy.

After the release of the recent report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis that painted a dim future for the Huntley coal plant, Clean Air held a series of community assemblies in the city and town of Tonawanda, Grand Island, and Riverside to vision a “just transition” in case of the plant’s closure. Nearly 100 impacted residents, workers, and climate change activists came together to vision a resilient future for our region if the NRG Huntley coal plant were to retire. The conference will build on the ideas and relationships that were generated at the assemblies.

Together, we can ensure that if the plant retires workers are protected, new revenue is secured for our schools and local governments, and the property is redeveloped to meet our community’s needs. Questions? Call Clean Air at 716-852-3813.

To view a news report on the upcoming conference, click here. 

Assemblies Seek Justice in Huntley Plant Transition

Huntley, located in the Town of Tonawanda, is Erie County's largest coal-burning power plant. A recent report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis stated Huntley "does not appear to be financially viable."  The report estimates that the plant was making $110 million a year as recently as 2005. However, the plant lost $1 million per year between 2009 and 2012.

The report goes on to call on community and corporate leadership.  We must make sure that if the plant retires, that workers at the plant and residents who live near the plant are protected. We must make sure that new revenue is secured for our schools and local governments, and for a clean-up of the waterfront property.

Join us for a "Just Transition" Assembly where we will: Share the financial report about Huntley; Brainstorm what residents, workers, and local governments will need in the future;  Identify community priorities.

• SATURDAY, March 1, 3pm: Boys and Girls Club, 54 Riverdale Rd., Town of Tonawanda

• MONDAY, March 3, 6pm: Grand Island Memorial Library, 1715 Bedell Rd., Grand Island

• THURSDAY, March 6, 6pm: Northwest Community Center, 155 Lawn Ave., Buffalo [Map]

• THURSDAY, March 13, 6pm: Tonawanda City Hall, 200 Niagara St., City of Tonawanda [Map]

TRANSITION with JUSTICE - a note from the Editor:
A "Just Transition" means ensuring sustainable economic opportunity for workers and the local community without sacrificing anyone’s health or the global climate. The transition would likely need to include worker retraining and financial assistance from the state to account for lost tax revenues. The specifics of any transition plan need to be determined by the plant’s workers and the community including labor, residents and officials.

Press Conference: STRENGTHEN CUOMO'S DRAFT ENERGY PLAN

Tuesday, Feb. 25th at 9 a.m.

Outside of SUNY Buffalo, Center for Tomorrow, North Campus,

Flint & Service Center Roads, Amherst, NY

TELL CUOMO

New York Energy Plan Misses Mark on Climate Protection

On Tuesday, Feb. 25, NYS is hold hearings on the state’s draft Energy Plan starting at 10:00.  At 9:00, there will be a press conference sponsored by the Sierra Club Niagara Group, NYPIRG at Buffalo State, Western NY Drilling Defense, Food & Water Watch, and New Yorkers Against Fracking.  The plan is intended to be a guide for energy decisions in the state.  Unfortunately, it falls short, failing to adequately address the dangers of climate disruption fueled by the state’s reliance on outdated and dirty fossil fuels.

Lynda Schneekloth, Chair of the Sierra Club Niagara Group, issued the following statement:

Now more than ever we need Governor Cuomo to be a climate leader, but he missed a great opportunity with this plan. New York’s Energy Plan has the potential to be a road map for a stronger economy, cleaner air and a safer future, but we won’t get there with more of the same dirty fuels like coal, gas and nuclear. Doubling down on wind power in upstate and getting steel in the water off our shores will reduce our climate risk, clean up the air and lower energy costs for families and businesses.

Specifically, we believe the plan should be strengthened in the following ways:

·         Ramp up investments in clean, renewable wind power both in upstate and off our shores.

·         Strengthen and extend our renewable energy incentive program and energy efficiency goals for at least 10 years.

·         Retire the state’s aging and uneconomical fossil fuel and nuclear plants, move away from further investments in gas infrastructure and protect our families and water from fracking.

·         Mandate enforceable interim targets to get on track to meet the state’s goal of reducing carbon pollution 80% by 2050.

·         Develop plans for a “Just Transition” for workers and communities that will be impacted by coal plant closures that are not re-powered with methane, but  proceed directly to renewables to boost regional economies.   

~ ~ ~

To view a flier from New Yorkers Against Fracking, click here.

Public Hearing on Replacing Coal with Gas in Power Plants

PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION (PSC) HEARING

ON PROPOSAL TO REPOWER DUNKIRK AND CAYUGA

COAL FIRED POWER PLANTS WITH GAS

Come and Give Testimony

Come and Support those Giving Testimony with your Presence

Monday, July 15, 2013

SUNY Fredonia, Multi-Purpose Room at the William Center

Fredonia, NY

Public Testimony starts at 7 pm

Administrative Law Judge Presiding

The Public Service Commission (PSC) is currently deciding whether to repower the Dunkirk and Cayuga coal-fired power plants with natural gas or to opt for more environmental and cost effective transmission system upgrades, efficiency, and renewables. There will be presentations by NRG and National Grid with Q&Q from 6-7. Public testimony will follow at 7 pm.

There is so much agreement that natural gas is the wrong choice (for environmental, fracking, cost, consumer benefit reasons) that the Business Council, the Sierra Club, and seven other environmental organizations submitted joint comments to the PSC urging the transmission upgrades, efficiency, and renewables over natural gas, Needless to say, the Business Council and enviros rarely issue joint statements. 

Senators Maziarz, Young, and Nozzolio quickly requested a public hearing in Fredonia which the PSC granted. The Sierra Club -- and others -- have submitted about 2,000 public comments opposing the natural gas conversion.

We need a strong presence at the Fredonia hearing so that Senators Young and Maziarz will hear our voices in support of cost-effective and more environmentally friendly options like renewables, infrastructure, and efficiency. This hearing can set the stage for future victories and give a public victory to fracktivists and renewable energy activists. 

SUNY Fredonia Location:  Building #21 on Campus Map.
Map to SUNY Fredonia is Here

Panel Discussion: Ending Coal Burning in Western NY

7:30 p.m., Monday, November 12, 
Daemen College,
4380 Main Street, Amherst,
Room 336, Duns Scotus Hall
Free and Open to the Public 

Panelists:

• Penny Messinger, Ph.D., Associate Professor, History and Government Department, Daemen College
• Rebecca Newberry, Program Coordinator, Clean Air Coalition of WNY (www.cacwny.org);
• Kenzie Reynen, Global and Local Sustainability Major, Daemen College 
• Jennifer Tuttle, Organizer, Sierra Club New York Beyond Coal Campaign (www.beyondcoal.org). 

The moderator is Walter Simpson (www.energyreallymatters.com) who will begin the session with a presentation on how activists helped prevent the construction of a new coal plant in Jamestown, NY.  The discussion will then turn to the fate of Western New York’s four existing coal plants. 

Printable Flyer and Map: Click Here 

Jamestown Coal Power: Stay or Go?

Opinion in The Buffalo News
Scuttling the coal plant - 8/21/2009
Jamestown project draws questions, Praxair shifts sites to Michigan

The U.S. Department of Energy has questioned whether Jamestown is the rock upon which someone should build a so-called clean coal power plant. So Praxair, the industrial gas company trying to cook up the technology, and earn a share of the $2.3 billion the Energy Department has available for such experiments, has shifted its focus from the city in Western New York to another proposed project in western Michigan.

Politics cannot be absent, with big names in the Democratic Party lobbying a Democratic administration for the money and the jobs that follow. But the reason for Praxair's shift is about as reasonable, scientifically speaking, as can be imagined. And it demonstrates that the Jamestown Board of Public Utility's (BPU) long-time belief in the project is on shaky ground indeed.

The Jamestown BPU and Praxair, a Connecticut-based company with a plant in the Town of Tonawanda, have had their heads together on a plan to reimagine the coal-fired power plant Jamestown has wanted to build for six years as a demonstration for carbon capture technology. That is something that could, if it works, go a long way to mitigate the environmental damage done by the burning of coal.

The problem with letting Jamestown call its 50-megawatt plant a clean-coal facility is that there is, so far, no assurance that the technology will work. If it doesn't, Jamestown would be sitting there with an expensive, pollution-belching power plant that will cost town residents a lot more money than they would have spent on a similar level of greener power from any of a number of existing or possible alternative sources. Read the full Editorial in The Buffalo News.

But Jamestown isn't quitting. They're scutlling Praxair and applying for Federal funds! See the article below.

A Calculated Long Shot - 8/22/2009
BPU, OxyCoal Alliance To File Funding Application Without Praxair

The Jamestown Board of Public Utilities and members of the New York OxyCoal Alliance have decided to file their own funding application for an oxycoal project at the BPU's Samuel A. Carlson generating plant on Steele Street.

The Post-Journal learned of the decision Friday afternoon, just days before the Monday application deadline for funding through the U.S. Department of Energy's Clean Coal Power Initiative.

The decision comes two weeks after Praxair, in a stunning move, decided to demote Jamestown to the alternate slot for an oxycoal project behind Holland, Mich. Praxair said its decision - which came just 12 days before the DOE's application deadline - was made because the Michigan location has ''better geological formations and a more solid financial position.''

Thanks to a boost from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, the DOE has over $1 billion to spend on clean coal projects. It has already agreed to spend $408 million on two carbon capture and sequestration projects - an existing power plant in Beulah, N.D. and a new facility in Kern County, Calif. - that use different technology than the BPU's proposed project.
Read the full article by Kristen Johnson in the The Post-Journal.

[UPDATE: 8/25/2009]
Council Backs Project
City Promises $145 Million For OxyCoal Plant

The Jamestown City Council has thrown its weight behind the funding application filed Monday night by the Jamestown Board of Public Utilities and members of the New York OxyCoal Alliance for an oxycoal project at the BPU's Samuel A. Carlson generating plant on Steele Street.

Council members voted unanimously to approve a resolution that not only expressed the council's firm support for the project but also promised that - should the U.S. Department of Energy fund the Jamestown project with Clean Coal Power Initiative funds - the city would either issue $145 million worth of municipal bonds or guarantee the repayment of $145 million in revenue bonds issued by a special purpose entity. Read the full article by Kristen Johnson in the The Post-Journal.

Earlier articles, viewpoints and letters to the editor:

• Hopes rise for coal plant in Jamestown - 3/15/2009

• Seek sustainable energy, not more coal plants - 3/21/2009

• Jamestown coal plant project is good investment - 7/28/2009

• Jamestown coal power plant is both costly and unneeded - 8/03/2009

• Carbon storage is unproven, too costly for Jamestown - 8/04/2009

• New coal plant will increase electric rates in Jamestown - 8/05/2009

• Schumer should drop plans to pursue ‘clean coal’ plant - 8/20/2009

What do you think about proposed coal power plant in Jamestown...
Should coal stay or should it go?

Ponder this question while listening to The Clash:

ENERGY in the BUFFALO NEWS

Huntley dream was just too speculative
Clean-coal technology was pricey, unproven
By David Robinson NEWS BUSINESS REPORTER Updated: 07/20/08
At first glance, the advanced coal power plant proposed for the Huntley Station in the Town of Tonawanda seemed like a good solution to some of America’s energy problems. Use America’s abundant — and relatively affordable — supply of coal to generate electricity in a groundbreaking new way that would keep the carbon dioxide that causes global warming from spewing into the atmosphere. But the reality was far different for the Huntley Station project — and at least 11 other similar plants that had been on drawing boards across the country. Read more...

Power project short-circuits
Loss of Huntley clean-coal effort hurts, but the numbers simply didn’t add up
EDITORIAL Updated: 07/19/08
It’s a shame it had to come to cancellation, but the decision to abandon plans to build a technologically advanced clean-coal generating plant in Tonawanda looks like the right move. When the science is uncertain and the cost is prohibitive, few other choices remain, especially when the state — which would have to subsidize the project — is already facing a massive deficit. Read more...

Gore calls end of fossil fuel reliance key to resolving economic crisis
By Dina Cappiello - ASSOCIATED PRESS Updated: 07/18/08
WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Al Gore called Thursday for a “man on the moon” effort to switch all of the nation’s electricity production to wind, solar and other carbon-free sources within 10 years, a goal that he said would solve global warming as well as economic and natural security crises caused by dependence on fossil fuels. Read more...
Video and text of Gore's speech are here.

Scrapped coal plant would have cost taxpayers at least $175 million a year
Huntley Station project also would have relied on unproven technology
By David Robinson NEWS BUSINESS REPORTER Updated: 07/17/08
State officials pulled the plug Wednesday on a proposed $1.6 billion advanced coal project that would have brought more than 1,000 construction and operating jobs to the Town of Tonawanda, saying the electrical generating plant would cost taxpayers too much and relied on technology that remains unproven. Read more...

Lackawanna project needs hard look
Coal-to-synthetic gas plant sounds good but waste-carbon process is incomplete
EDITORIAL Updated: 07/11/08
Everybody wants to be in on the ground floor of the next big thing. The question about the proposed Lackawanna Clean Energy project is whether it is the wave of the future or a delusional last gasp for the carbon-based economy. That is the question that will need to be pondered as state officials consider environmental permits for the project and when, and if, project managers seek anything in the way of public funding or tax breaks. Read more...
Proposal for synthetic gas plant at Bethlehem Steel site raises both hopes and doubts. NEWS report by Stephen T. Watson is here.

New Under The Sun
Outrages & Insights Blog By James Heaney 7/10/08
Ah, progress. The mainstream economic development agencies are waking up to the potential of the green economy. Buffalo Niagara Enterprise has launched a campaign to attract solar manufacturers to the region, piggy-backing on plans by Globe Metals to open a plant in Niagara Falls next year to produce high-grade silicon, the key material for the panels. Read more...