Plans to lay a 335-mile, 2,000 megawatt transmission line from Canada to New York City and Connecticut were just announced, with a major portion of the line proposed to be buried in the muck of the Hudson River starting near Selkirk and Castleton south to the Bronx.
Calling the project the Champlain-Hudson Power Express, developers at Transmission Development Inc. (TDI) are making a public presentation from 6-8 pm next Tuesday (March 9th) at the Holiday Inn Express at 300 Broadway. The project would involve burying four five-inch-diameter cables in the River, skirting the PCB cleanups now underway north of Albany. A PDF document showing the full route can be downloaded by clicking here.
TDI’s principle backers are The Blackstone Group based on Park Avenue, a major investor in Hilton Hotels, Orbitz.com, Michaels craft stores, and various communications companies. The company has been the subject of several recent controversies, outlined here by CNN. Among other things, Blackstone owns Sea World, where a trainer was recently drowned and mangled by a killer whale. Billionaire CEO Steve Schwarzman also came under fire for his $3 million birthday party in 2007 before the stock market crash.
The Catskill Daily Mail repeats unchallenged TDI’s claim that "neither commercial nor recreational current use of the Hudson River will be affected by the line’s presence." (Note the word “current,” which would suggest it might affect future uses.)
