The funny thing about Senator Patrick Gallivan’s 12/27/11 response letter, Power NY: A comprehensive, inclusive energy strategy, to my 12/20 letter, “A loss of self-government,” was that Senator Gallivan completely ignored mentioning the main point of my letter — the loss of “Home Rule” — which has occurred across NYS thanks to the passage of Article X contained within the Power NY Act.
In spite of Republican campaign rhetoric rallying against the expansion of ‘Big Government’ — removing “Home Rule” is the expansion of ‘Big Government’! ‘Article X’ has put all control regarding the siting of energy facilities into the hands of a select few, unelected bureaucrats — rendering all of our locally elected officials completely powerless.
As Senator Gallivan is well-aware, a unanimously-passed County-wide Resolution opposing the Power NY Act has been passed within his district because of the bill’s resulting loss of “Home Rule”. One would think that the good Senator would be working hard to protect and implement the wishes of those within his district — you know, those pesky people who elected him into office in the first place.
Senator Gallivan cited his justifications for supporting the law as “promoting energy independence and clean energy use throughout New York State.” This statement reads like something right out of President Obama’s ‘green’ energy handbook, which, as Obama admitted, “will cause our electricity prices to necessarily skyrocket”.
First of all, our energy “dependence” problem is because of our addiction to oil for gasoline. We already are “energy independent” when it comes to our electricity supply. Our nationwide electricity output from oil is only 1%. And since electricity from wind & solar are dependent on the rare earth elements that come from China, that’s not “energy independence” either. (http://tinyurl.com/4u2xjst)
Despite the expose’ of all the corruption surrounding Obama’s ‘green’ energy agenda currently in the news (e..g. – Solyndra), and how it’s Full of Hot Air and Costing You Big Bucks, Senator Gallivan seems to be saying, “All aboard the ‘green’ energy train!” — the derailment of Home Rule is just a necessary casualty along the way. (http://tinyurl.com/cdotqgw)
As President Obama, Governor Cuomo, and energy-illiterate green ideologues continue to:
(1) push for the closing of Indian Point Nuclear plant outside NYC (http://tinyurl.com/d4xxnmq and http://tinyurl.com/bmu3tpw);
(2) over-regulate coal plants right out of business – the source of over 1/2 of our nation’s affordable, reliable power (http://tinyurl.com/bulzpgv);
(3) close existing Co-Gen plants across NYS; and,
(4) fail to operate Niagra Falls at full capacity —
We are expected to believe that our declining populace in this severely indebted state needs to spend MILLIONS, if not BILLIONS, on building new, ridiculously inefficient, unreliable ‘green’ energy generation facilities that exist only because of taxpayer-funded corporate welfare?!? This is nothing short of insane! (http://tinyurl.com/cva4s6t & http://tinyurl.com/cgmw9ja)
It’s no wonder NYS continues to rate as one the worst states in the country to do business when it’s leaders continue to spend money on things that don’t work – causing energy prices to soar and increasing the cost of doing business in NYS. (http://www.northnet.org/brvmug/NYSDirtyDozen.pdf)
Likewise, it’s not hard to figure out why businesses and people are leaving NYS in droves, and citizens who used to be proud of their respective party – Republicans & Democrats alike – are becoming Independents. (http://tinyurl.com/d5bo7ue)
We continue to hope and pray that as a dedicated ‘public servant’, Senator Gallivan will work to educate himself in order to pursue policies backed by sound science & economics, and based on ethics and integrity above money. (http://tinyurl.com/ca3fl9z).
Supporting the derailment of all NYS municipalities’ Constitutionally-appointed right to “Home Rule” to hop on board the ‘green’ energy train is, at best, extremely misguided.
Mary Kay Barton
CitizenPowerAlliance.org
