NYC task force offers 2008 Energy Plan

- A New York City mayoral task force is looking into expanding the city's energy needs by 2008. The council recommended that new power plants be built, that existing ones be retrofitted and that the process for selecting sites for plants be simplified.

The New York City Energy Policy Task Force, formed by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg in July, said the added electrical resources would be needed for economic expansion, to make energy prices competitive with those in other cities and to fill a void created by power plants that are mothballed. The group, headed by the city's Economic Development Corporation, includes more than a dozen utility executives, environmentalists and economic development officials. It described its recommendations as an "electricity resource road map" that would require large investments and pressure from the government and private companies.

Among the most politically sensitive questions addressed was where new power plants should be built. Although the group did not point to any specific sites, it said the city must make sure that its zoning rules provided adequate industrial parcels for new plants. The report also called on legislators in Albany to reinstate rules that expired in 2002, which streamlined the complex regulatory process required to approve the sites of new power plants. But it said the rules should also require more analysis of the how emissions affected neighborhoods, and ensure that low-income and minority communities were not singled out for new plants.

Among its recommendations to the city, the group said long-term electrical power purchasing agreements should be considered with private companies that would be contingent on the construction of new or retrofitted power plants. It said meetings should be held with developers and financial institutions aimed at providing financing for new plants and power lines. It also said that existing but outdated power plants should be retrofitted.

Gil C. Quiniones, a senior vice president of the Economic Development Corporation and chairman of the task force, said recently that it would issue future reports twice a year on how its recommendations are faring. In a statement, Mayor Bloomberg said the city's energy needs "are growing day by day, and we must act now to ensure that have sufficient supply of clean and reliable power."

Ashok Gupta, an official of the Natural Resources Defense Council and a member of the task force, called the report "a comprehensive and balanced blueprint for meeting future electricity needs while reducing harmful pollution."