Consortium Drops Its Plan to Build New Power Lines (to NYC)

[jpak]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/04/business/energy-environment/04power.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion

A consortium of private investors that sought to build high-voltage electricity transmission lines to carry power from renewable sources upstate to New York City said on Friday that it was suspending its efforts.

The consortium, New York Regional Interconnect, cited a ruling made on Tuesday by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in Washington upholding a review process that demands that each such project be subject to a cost-benefit analysis and receive the support of 80 percent of the beneficiaries.

Regional Interconnect said it interpreted the decision as giving its main competitor, Con Edison, which purchases almost all of the electricity for New York City, the power to approve or block the project.

The consortium called the review process anticompetitive and said it would not resume attempts to build the power lines unless the regulatory environment changed.

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