Schumer Urges NY Speed 250-MW Plant For Long Island

Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

NEW  YORK (Dow Jones)--U.S. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) on Monday called on state regulators to speed the process for siting a 250-megawatt power plant that KeySpan Energy Corp. (KSE) plans to build on eastern Long Island.

The senator, who was joined at a press conference by Ashok Gupta, energy program director at the National Resources Defense Council, and the heads of KeySpan and the Long Island Power Authority, also urged the companies to double  the capacity of the combined cycle plant, which is expected to begin operating by 2004.

KeySpan said it will continue with its plans to develop the 250-MW plant in Melville because altering the plans would delay the siting process.

The natural gas-fired plant will be 30% more efficient than conventional generators and one of the cleanest in the country, Schumer and KeySpan Chairman Robert Catell said in a release.

Gupta said in a statement, "NRDC has always said that it could support some new, properly sited, combined-cycle, natural gas power plants and we are  happy to join Senator Schumer in doing that today."

LIPA has estimated that peak demand for power on Long Island between 1995 and 2000 has climbed 460 MW to 4,564 MW while capacity has remained near 4,500 MW. New power plants are necessary to meet the island's increasing demand  for power, Schumer said.

KeySpan and LIPA earlier this month announced plans to install two natural gas-fired generators capable of producing 79 MW at a mothballed gas  facility in Nassau County. The companies said they expected the units to be on  line next summer.

The plans have drawn fire from the Citizens Advisory Panel, a watchdog group, who said Long Island needs an energy plan that considers alternatives to new power plants and examines, with input from the public, the effects of new  generation on the island's economy and environment.