ITHACA – The woman who will be challenging congressman Tom Reed (R-Corning) in the 2014 election is offering her thoughts on the NRG re-powering proposal.
Tompkins County democrat Martha Robertson spoke late last month at a Public Service Commission public hearing, to offer a third proposal that she says would create more jobs by retrofitting the Dunkirk and Lansing power plants to co-fire coal with bio-mass.
She believes her plan would break a stalemate between those who would shut the plants down in favor of upgraded transmission lines, and those who propose a full conversion to natural gas. According to Robertson – her “third way” would lower costs and risk, and reduce environmental impacts, while allowing both plants to remain open and creating more jobs for New Yorkers.
In response to Robertson’s proposal, NRG officials have come out and said her approach is unworkable. Congressman Tom Reed’s campaign manager also criticized Robertson’s plan, saying she is trying to avoid upsetting her liberal, environmental-fringe base in Ithaca by not taking a clear position on this issue. Reed says that there is only one solution to preserve the plants and that is to repower both with natural gas.
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