Groups Petition for Rehearing of PSC's Greenidge Power Plant Decision

On October 17, the Committee to Preserve the Finger Lakes and the Coalition to Protect New York petitioned for rehearing of the September 16 order of the New York Public Service Commission (PSC) issuing certificates of convenience and necessity for the repowering of Greenidge Generating Station on Seneca Lake.

The petition asserts that the PSC's Order is affected by errors of fact and law because it relied upon negative declarations prepared by the Department of Environmental Conservation (“DEC”) that was based on factual and legal errors and thus was not in compliance with the requirements of the State Environmental Quality Review Act, Environmental Conservation Law, Article 8 (“SEQRA”). The negative declarations were factually in error because they were based on flawed and incomplete environmental assessments and because they improperly compared the impacts of restarting the Greenidge Generation Station to the impacts of the station’s previous operations, when in fact the plant was permanently shut-down in 2011. The negative declarations were legally in error because they failed to comply with SEQRA and 6 N.Y.C.R.R. Part 617 in that they failed to identify all areas of relevant environmental concern, thoroughly analyze the environmental issues identified, and present a reasoned elaboration for why the identified environmental impacts would not adversely affect the environment in violation of 6 N.Y.C.R.R. §617.7(b), improperly considered only a segment of the total project in violation of 6 N.Y.C.R.R. §617.3(g)(2), and failed to consider reasonably related long-term, short-term, direct, indirect and cumulative impacts in violation of 6 N.Y.C.R.R. §617.7(c)(2).