Morning Read: North Country municipal power project dissolves into name calling
The Watertown Daily Times is reporting this morning that plans to develop a municipal power system for 24 North Country towns is “dead in the water” and accusations are flying.
The project was designed to cut power costs in the communities by developing a sort of collective that could negotiate better electricity contracts.
Some partners are blaming James Monroe, the man who has led the project. The newspaper quotes at length Kenneth C. Anderson, a Washington DC attorney who has been a consultant on the effort.
“Nobody wants to work with [Monroe],” Mr. Anderson said. “He has a terrible temper and if you disagree with him, he just goes into a shell and refuses to do anything.”
A number of board members have asked that Monroe be dismissed by Governor Andrew Cuomo. But in today’s article, Monroe fires back, insisting that the municipal power concept is still viable.
“I got all these guys against me, it’s a challenge,” he said. “But I know what’s right and I know what’s wrong. If I should leave, the NCPA will really not be as vibrant and as profitable as I intend to make it.”
So what do you think? Is this feud forcing your community — and local businesses — to pay higher power rates than necessary?
Tags: energy
Money, power, politics, this story doesn’t pass the sniff test. Can we get some actual journalism instead of soundbites and base appeal?
I don’t know if Monroe is the problem but it sounds like he’s not as productive as he could be. They’ve been talking about this more years than I can count. Meantime North Country folks are paying big electric bills except for Massena. I have to wonder what the obstacles are. Our daughter lives in a municipal electric district downstate (Endicott) and pays a fraction of what we do for electricity.
A large part of Monroe’s job is consensus building and leadership. It sounds to me like he is unqualified regardless of the particulars of what is going on.
Dan makes a great point. That being that we need to delve deeper into why the North Country pays so dearly for energy it produces in vast quantities right here in its back yard. From the duopoly power of National Grid, the New York Power Authority, etc. to Municipal power development, to feed in tariffs vs. net metering for residential producers, to the recent “home rule” power legislation passed in Albany, to rebuilding the antiquated grid system, to the politics and special interests that encapsulate all of these issues. I’m hoping some day that NCPR takes the lead on this and devotes a series (much like the excellent series on local food/farming NCPR recently produced) to an issue that really needs addressing.
According to this article (see link), Mr. Monroe just wants to know what he’s paying 15 million dollars for. Seems like a reasonable request.
http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20110815/NEWS05/708159928
1.25 million dollars for part time work over 2 years??? This sounds like a game of “Lets Make a Deal”. Choose first and then I’ll tell you whats in the box.
Thanks for the link, MrSandwich. Interesting situation to say the least. It brings back memories of the attempt several years by Lewis County to develop a municipal power company. Ultimately it was deemed to be so expensive with so little return for the investment that the effort was abandoned.
I suspect it, yet again, had a great deal to do with the power of the monopoly protected public utilities. Anyone who dares challenge them can expect huge legal fees simply to navigate the legal stumbling blocks the utilities implement in order to ensure their control.
For all of Cuomo’s talk about changing they way we do business in New York (for instance when signing the recent “home rule” legislation), the process for developing a local municipality is one that desperately needs reform and streamlining. In the cases of challenging National Grid, why do we continue to allow a foreign owned power utility to hold such sway over our energy needs here in the North Country?
I think Mr. Monroe’s quote says it all. Pay close attention to the last 5 words of the quote…….
“I got all these guys against me, it’s a challenge,” he said. “But I know what’s right and I know what’s wrong. If I should leave, the NCPA will really not be as vibrant and as profitable as I intend to make it.”
NCPA is his personal ‘I’ project. It’s all about him and it always has been.
This sounds like a good idea in theory. Clapton, what “vast” amounts of energy are produced in this area?
Monroe, reminds me of our president it’s all about him and he blames everyone else.
I don’t know if anyone remembers the attempt to create a municipal electric system in Glens Falls some years back but as I remember it some big forces started working behind the scenes to discredit the people behind it and to divide groups that might want to work together to get local control over the power supply.
It might be worth a little refresher for a journalist to dig back into what happened then. Maybe there is something to be learned that could apply to the current situation.
Thanks for the link MrSandwich. I don’t know a darned thing about the details of this but I know when something stinks.
I don’t trust lawyers, ever. I don’t know Mr. Monroe but his questions seem practical and it makes me very suspicious when Mr. Anderson says he’s difficult to deal with. I think Thomas is onto something with the egos involved too. There’s more to this story than we’re hearing and a Washington D.C. lawyer knows enough to get out in front of the story before it becomes a major issue.
Paul,
Let’s see, one of the largest hydro dams in the North East (Massena), which powers a portion of NYC, the largest wind farm east of the Mississippi (with possibly 39 more turbines to be added in the future), several other smaller hydro units just in Lewis County alone (mainly on the Beaver River from Stillwater to Carthage), several others on the Black River, several on the Raquette, a few co-generation facilities (Beaver Falls, Lyons Falls) and the Wind farms in Jefferson County. And while arguably not in the North Country, the nuke plants in Oswego are certainly very close. And the potential for even more biomass and residential production if the utilities weren’t allowed to cap the amount they will purchase.
Is this a paid position?