REV: A Quiet Energy Revolution in New York State

What is the Public Service Commission's 'REV' Initiative and 

how will it affect our lives?

By Larry Beahan, Habitat chairman of the Sierra Club Niagara Group

Have you heard of the “REV”? It is a revolution in the supply and regulation of New York’s energy. It is a dramatic and fundamental change and it is a dirty shame that most New Yorkers have never heard of it. REV stands for the NY Public Service Commission’s initiative, Reforming the Energy Vision.

When my mother was 5 in 1911, a man came to the front door. “Do you folks want electricity?” he asked. She said “no,” and shut the door. Grandma overheard and rushed after him to have gas lights replaced with Edison bulbs. Tesla and Westinghouse had built an electric power plant at Niagara Falls and formed a company that shipped power by wire all over the region.

That basic model for electric power is still with us. Investor-owned utilities produce electricity in large central plants with hydro, coal, natural gas and nuclear energy and transmit it to consumers over a complex grid. Doing an affordable and reliable job of it is an increasingly complex puzzle.

Power plants and their transmission systems are aging and energy demands are rising. Unusual weather creates demand peaks. Plants are prime terrorist targets, and fossil fuels have filled the air with pollution and the skies with global warming gasses.

In response, we have shifted away from central sources of power and moved to windmills, solar panels and geothermal installations that are widely distributed and close to consumers. These renewable energy sources don’t pollute or cause global warming. But they raise questions. Who will own them? How will they be paid for? How will they be integrated into a mutually supportive system?

Last April the Public Service Commission issued orders for the REV initiative. The commission staff went to work chiefly with utility company executives to answer these and many related questions. It has come up with a “straw proposal,” a complex technical document that needs an engineer with training in linguistics to understand.

On the insistence of environmental organizations, the PSC has agreed to hold six forums across the state where the REV will be explained and the rest of us will have two minutes before a microphone to make our contributions.

This scanty opportunity to be involved in a titanic change in the power supply to our civilization is a travesty. Tesla’s salesman offered my poor mother as much in 1911.

New Yorkers deserve to thoroughly understand what is being proposed and how it will affect our lives. We deserve an opportunity to have our own experts contribute to the design of a distributive power system for the 21st century.

The Public Service Commission meetings on the REV in Buffalo are at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. Thursday, January 29th in the Central Library in downtown Buffalo.

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This article originally appeared in The Buffalo News and at BuffaloNews.com

Fracking Regulations: DEC gets Buried in Public Comments and Sued

~ Regulations elicit 200,000 comments and legal charges against DEC ~

Boxes of public comments delivered to DEC headquarters in Albany

Public Comments:
Groups opposed to shale gas drilling and fracking collected over 200,000 public comments in response to revised proposed regulations issued by the NY Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). The combined effort of these citizen groups was remarkable given that the DEC restricted public comments to the busy holiday period from December 10, 2012 to January 11, 2013. The groups delivered many boxes of public comments at DEC headquarters on the last day of the comment period (click photo to enlarge).

Shown at the podium in the photo above is Sandra Steingraber, a biologist, author and founder of New Yorkers Against Fracking. She created a website, called Thirty Days of Fracking Regs, to help people compose comments on the DEC regulations and submit them. Using a clever "Advent Calendar" approach, each day, for the 30 day commenting period, she posted one regulation, which she translated into plain English and included some science relevant to that regulation. 

Public comments solicited independently by many other groups (listed below*) were also included in the over 200,000 responses. Comments from individuals, other organizations and elected officials have yet to be counted. 

- Protest: Governor Andrew Cuomo was silent on hydrofracking in his State of the State address on January 9, 2013, but anti-fracking protestors were not. Over a thousand protestors turned out to line the concourse of Albany's Empire State Plaza where lawmakers passed on their way to hear the governor's speech. The protestors expressed their views on fracking through chants and banners (see photos here).

- DEC Deadline: The DEC has a February 27th deadline to either finalize the planned hydrofracking rules or allow them to expire. State law mandates that the final environmental impact statement (the SGEIS) has to be released to the public first, at least 10 days in advance of the rules deadline. The DEC may have to signal a decision on hydraulic fracturing by February 13, 2013 if they hope to meet an end-of-the-month deadline for finalizing a set of proposed regulations, as reported here. Missing the regulatory deadline would require the state to restart the formal proceedings.

Legal Charges against the DEC:
The DEC did not hold a public hearing on the proposed regulations within 30 days of the publication date of the Notice, i.e., by January 11, 2013. It turns out that was illegal. This and other flaws are cited in a legal demand letter to the DEC and NYS Inspector General from the Community Environmental Defense Council, Inc. by David F. Slottje, Esq. and Helen H. Slottje, Esq.. The letter opens with the following statements:

This letter formally advises and notifies the Department of Environmental Conservation ("DEC") and the Office of the NYS Inspector General: (i) that the DEC has acted contrary to law and lawful procedure with respect to the matters described below; (ii) that the DEC's actions with respect to such matters were and are in excess of the DEC's jurisdiction and an abuse of the DEC's discretion; and (iii) that accordingly the DEC's actions as to such matters are invalid, null and void.

The full contents of the letter dated January 11, 2013 can be viewed here. 

Please consider donating to support the continuing efforts of the Community Environmental Defense Council.
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* Groups submitting comments to the DEC included Thirty Days of Fracking Regs, Food and Water Watch, Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy, Frack Action, Artists against Fracking, CREDO, New Yorkers Against Fracking, 350, Sierra Club, Signon, Working Families Party, Center for Biological Diversity, Citizen Action, GreenPeace, Earth Justice, Delaware Riverkeeper Network, and United for Action

Public Comment Period on Hydrofracking Regulations

NY Governor Cuomo and his Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) released High Volume Hydraulic Fracturing Proposed Regulations for public review on December 12, 2012. Comments must be submitted by January 11, 2013.

Those concerned about shale-gas extraction by high-volume hydraulic fracturing in NY State need to get busy and submit comments on the proposed regs over the already busy holiday period.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the governor and the DEC!

To clarify what's going on, DEC's Proposed Regulations for High Volume Hydraulic Fracturing are separate and distinct from the SGEIS Permit Guideline Proceedings that have already reviewed by the public and received over 80,000 comments in January, 2012.  The Proposed Regulations are also separate from the ongoing Health Impact Assessment, which really should have been completed first and used to inform the Proposed Regulations.

It's a busy time of the year! January 11th will be here in a flash. What's a concerned citizen to do? Here are a couple of suggestions to help you:

1. Visit the website 30 Days of Fracking Regs. There you'll find a list of dates from December 12 to January 10, each of which is linked to a specific regulation. Click on a highlighted date, and the regulation will be revealed (in red). Below it (in green) is an explanation of the regulation along with some aspects that you might like to comment on. Scroll down to "Submit Comment on this Regulation Below!" and follow the simple instructions to enter and submit your comments. 
2. Attend a comment party! Join the good folks at WNY Drilling Defense for a "Lots of Fracking Comments" Party! Pizza will be served too. Write your comments with the help of others present at the Party on Friday, December 21, 2012 at 7 pm at the Network of Religious Communities, 1272 Delaware Avenue in Buffalo. Visit Lots of Fracking Comments Party for more information.

Whether you follow suggestion 1., suggestion 2. or both, Comment Early, and Comment Often!