Colgate University has been selected as a site for hearings involving New York Regional Interconnect’s proposed $2.1 billion high-voltage power line project.
The Oct. 20 hearings will be in the university’s Hall of Presidents. Information forums will be held at 1 and 6 p.m., followed by public statement hearings at 2 and 7 p.m.
The university’s Upstate Institute worked with the state Public Service Commission on logistics of the campus hearings. The university is within 20 miles of the proposed power line, something that the PSC required when selecting venues.
The PSC on Monday released a schedule for the public meetings in each county along the line’s proposed 190-mile route.
The state agency charged with reviewing the transmission project originally scheduled just two hearings, in Utica and Oneonta, but added a dozen other sessions after a massive outcry from grassroots opposition groups along the proposed corridor.
Madison County residents will be the first to weigh in on the project at the hearings held at Colgate.
Members of the public can present comments before the PSC’s administrative judges. Appointments are not necessary; speakers will be called after completing a card requesting time to speak. The hearings will remain open until everyone wishing to speak has been heard, “or other reasonable arrangements are made,” according to the PSC announcement.
The Upstate Institute sponsored a series on energy issues in 2006 to promote community discussion about the proposed power line. The series included lectures on the renewable energy revolution, the economics of electricity transmission, and the health effects of electromagnetic fields.
The institute continues to promote this public dialogue by supporting research by Rebecca Morgenstern Brenner, project consultant for the institute, on environmental justice.
Environmental justice, as designated in Executive Order 12898, is the disproportionate environmental impacts to communities with minority or low-income populations. Brenner will review social indicators to assess if the proposed transmission project may violate environmental justice legislation.
Also on campus, the Center for Outreach, Volunteerism, and Education will be hosting a brown bag lunch Oct. 10 at which community organizer Chris Rossi will speak.