In an “emergency motion,” the New York Public Service Commissionhas asked FERC not to award the proposed Millennium Pipeline finalenvironmental clearance until an alternate route is found for theproject in the state.

State regulators said they are opposed to Millennium’s proposalto build in Consolidated Edison Co. of New York’s transmissionright-of-way (ROW) in Westchester County because “it creates anunacceptably high risk that electric service to millions of NewYork residents would be disrupted both during construction andafter the pipeline is in place.”

The New York commission “knows of no gas pipeline installed in aright-of-way like this one,” given the “combination of riskfactors,” it said [CP98-150]. FERC “should consider…..the othernorth/south rights-of-way for placement of the pipeline, includingthose on the western side of the Hudson River.”

Building Millennium in ConEd’s ROW would increase the chances ofanother blackout in New York rivaling the one that occurred in thesummer of 1977, said Edward C. Schrom, an electric operationsspecialist with the New York State Department of Public Service(NYDPS), in an affidavit.

“Service interruptions on these lines to New York City wouldresult in the shutdown of the underground subway system and Amtrak,the Long Island Railroad and other commuter trains. Hundreds ofthousands of people could be trapped underground; large numbers ofpeople could be trapped in high-rise elevators; financial serviceswould be disrupted; and service to a high concentration of medicalfacilities would be disrupted,” he noted.

Millennium, which is co-sponsored by Columbia Gas Transmission,contends that “precautions can be taken to minimize the risks toworkers or service interruptions during construction” and over thelong term, but state regulators called this “speculative.”

Susan Parker

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