by Tony Gray
posted 13 January 2022

WASHINGTON COUNTY, NY --- Whitehall, along with other towns in the county, stands to reap a windfall from a PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) agreement with Champlain Hudson Power Express. The project involves a high-voltage direct current power cable to transfer hydroelectric power from Montreal, Canada to the NYC borough of Queens. Parts of the proposed power cable will be laid in Putnam, Dresden and Whitehall.

Engineering work has already begun in the Dresden/Putnam area according to Hampton Town Supervisor Dave O'Brien, who also heads the Warren-Washington County Industrial Development Agency that has County oversight of the project.

Supervisor O'Brien said Wednesday that towns, villages, school districts and the county are slated to receive more than $269 million over the next 30 years from the power suppliers. Payments are expected to begin in 2025 and last for 30 years afterwards.

Whitehall Central School District is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the project. It will get $765,863 in 2025 with gradual increases every year after, ending with a $1,895,265 payment in 2055. All told, the district will get more than $37 million over the 30 years of PILOT payments.

Superintendent of Schools Patrick Dee noted it will be 3+ years before the district sees payment from the PILOT. He said the money would likely be utilized for infrastructure needs in the district.

The towns of Whitehall, Dresden and Putnam, along with the village of Whitehall will also receive yearly payments from the project.

Whitehall will begin at $309,263 in 2025 and end with $765,326 in 2055, with payments totaling a little more than $15 million over the 30 years. Town Supervisor John Rozell did not immediately return a call for comment about how the town plans to spend that money.

The 30 years of PILOT payments to the village begin at $341,794 and grow to $845,830 in the final year, totaling more than $16.6 million. Village Mayor Julie Eagan could not be immediately reached for comment about how the payment will affect taxes and planned capital projects.

Dresden and Putnam will each receive hefty PILOT payments, also. Dresden will get $470,062 the first year and rise to a final annual payment of $1,163,249, in the final year. Town Supervisor Paul Ferguson said his community is still deciding how they would spend the money because for the longest time, they weren't really expecting the project to go through.

"Now, it's become more more real so we have to go back to the board," Supervisor Ferguson said, adding "what we really would like to do is build a new conference center and highway center barn."

"We're a small town," he concluded. "That's a lot of money." Ferguson said he would also like to make sure every house in Dresden was connected to SLIC, the high-speed broadband Internet provider servicing his town.

Putnam will get almost identical amounts, albeit a few hundred dollars higher each year than Dresden.

Town Supervisor Darrell Wilson could not be immediately reached for comment by phone or email so it is unclear how the town will spend the money. Town Clerk Darlene Kerr Thursday said one of the biggest things town officials are looking at is the way they allocate the PILOT funds because they don't want to create a tax bubble 30 years from now that will create hardships for taxpayers.

O'Brien told County Finance Committee members, in a December 2021 meeting, that cost adjustments will be made at the beginning and end of the project but it is his understanding adjustments will only be upwards, since they would have already signed the contracts for payments of their fixed amounts.

Construction for the Washington County portion of the project run about two years, according to O'Brien who added construction in this area is expected to begin later this year. Part of the power cable will be laid on the bed of Lake Champlain, according to O'Brien. Some of the power cable will be buried underground.

"Around the middle of the year, they'll be creating some temporary construction jobs," O'Brien said, adding the county does not know how many, yet. "We asked them to hire locally first, through the IDA," said O'Brien. "The challenge is that some of their positions are very skilled positions using very skilled techniques so they may not be able to fill all of them with local workers."

Over the objections of Indigenous Canadians and American environmentalists, the project only has one regulatory hurdle before our neighbors up north start sending 1,250 MW of energy down to the Big Apple.

Governor Kathy Hochul (D-N.Y.) announced Nov. 30, 2021 that the state had finalized contracts for Clean Path NY and Champlain Hudson Power Express to deliver renewable energy from Canada and Upstate New York down to NYC.

"The stakes have never been higher for New York as we confront the effects of climate change and the economic and environmental destruction that extreme weather events leave behind," Governor Hochul said in a statement. "This announcement not only accelerates our pace to achieving the goal for having 70 percent of New York State's energy to come from renewable resources."

"We're also creating sustainable jobs, reducing our dependence on fossil fuels, and paving the way for cleaner air and a healthier future for all New Yorkers," she added.

Hudson Riverkeeper sent a letter in July 2021 to former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo regarding the state's selection process for projects to receive Tier 4 renewable energy credits.

The environmental group urged Cuomo to fully consider the impacts of proposed projects on the Hudson River and at their source. Riverkeeper said CHPE would be a disaster for the Hudson River as well as its ecosystems and communities. The source of the power that CHPE would carry are Canadian mega-dams which damage rivers, violate human rights, and release potent greenhouse gases argued its Legal Director, Richard Webster.

"Using the river as a conduit for electrical cables could mobilize PCBs and other contaminants during construction, posing a particular concern for drinking waster supplies that are reliant on river water," Webster said. "In addition, during operation, such cables have sparked concerns in the shipping industry that emergency anchoring could snag a cable. Finally, there is a growing body of evidence that magnetic fields generated by in-water cables will inhibit the ability of fish to navigate.

Of course, there is still a very small possibility the Public Services Commission will derail the project but the pieces seem in motion now so that seems unlikely.