Urges fair treatment for Lewiston

Lewiston Porter Sentinel, December 4, 2004

The Niagara Power Project and its major investment are in the Town of Lewiston. Thousands of acres of prime town land were taken from the town and will never be on our tax rolls.

As the host community for the project, fairness demands that Lewiston receive proper compensation. The injustice of the last 50-year agreement must not happen with the next 50-year agreement. I along with others, have insisted that Lewiston residents who live literally within shouting distance of the generating plant should receive a block of low-cost power. This modest allocation of megawatts would have no effect on power allocations for other entities already in place.

The (Niagara) Power Coalition consists of seven stakeholder representatives who have worked for years to come to an agreement with the New York Power Authority on a benefit package in return for supporting a new 50-year re-licensing agreement. The overall package offered by NYPA appears reasonable and the distribution of cash benefits to coalition members seems fair.

However, the distribution of power which is worth $500 million or more over 50 years, versus about $140,000 net present value of cash over 50 years, is grossly unfair to Lewiston, the major host community of the Power Project. The coalition majority voted to give 36 percent of the power to Niagara County [$180 million]; 42 percent to Niagara Falls and its schools [$210 million] and 13 percent to Lewiston [$64 million]. Lewiston, as the home of the Power Project, deserves at least an equal share with the county and Niagara Falls in the allocation of power and its dollar value.

The allocation of cash benefits is 16 percent for Niagara Falls, 16 percent for Lewiston, 15 percent for Niagara County, 13 percent for the Town of Niagara, 14 percent for Niagara Falls CSD, 14 percent for Lew-Port CSD and 12 percent for Niagara Wheatfield CSD.

One may disagree with these percentages, but they are surely fairer than the more valuable, distorted power allocations. Each of the seven Coalition members have equal voting power on the distribution of benefits, sort of like having each state having an equal vote for President.

There must be a fairer way to consider the validity of each participant share. One suggestion is to allow the power allocation for the major stakeholders -- Lewiston, Niagara Falls and the county -- to be divided equally. This would be about 6.5 megawatts [26 percent] each. This would not change the power allocations for the other coalition members and would help assure Lewiston’s agreement with the overall proposal. I urge the Coalition to convene and address (the) fair treatment of Lewiston.

D. James Langlois