Day: April 1, 2020

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History of NEW YORK STATE ELECTRIC AND GAS CORPORATION – FundingUniverse

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History of NEW YORK STATE ELECTRIC AND GAS CORPORATION – FundingUniverse

New York State Electric and Gas Corporation (NYSEG) serves central, eastern, and western New York State, an area which, though mostly rural, includes the cities of Binghamton, Elmira, Corning, and Ithaca. Its territory includes one-third of the state's land area and a tenth of its population. With more than 775,000 electric customers and almost 220,000 gas customers, NYSEG serves a diversified population of industry, agriculture, recreational facilities, and colleges and universities.

NYSEG traces its history back to October 28, 1852, when six Ithaca businessmen pledged a total of $75,000 and incorporated as the Ithaca Gas Light Company. The fledgling company soon laid mains and built a coal gas plant. In 1853 Ithaca's streets saw their first lamps.

In the thirty years following the founding of Ithaca Gas Light, the use of methane gas grew steadily. Street lighting was extended beyond affluent business districts, while homeowners and businesses obtained lights for evening hours.

Coyotes, rats, others, adapt amid human isolation trends in urban areas — Furbearer Conservation

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Coyotes, rats, others, adapt amid human isolation trends in urban areas — Furbearer Conservation

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic currently sweeping through North America, stay-at-home mandates in all major cities are leaving city streets far more empty than normal; and its got many urban-adapted wildlife species making more brazen moves in mankind’s absence.

Its clear the change in societal patterning is having a ripple effect surpassing just the focal point of a virus spread.

While much of the American populous is practicing social distancing, other creatures are taking full advantage of the dampened human presence in urban settings.

Closing Down Kintigh Generating Station

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While closing coal plants seems to be all the political rage today, I think it was a mistake to close down AES Somerset aka the Kintigh Generating Station.

  • Its foolish for the state to become so dependent on natural gas power when its a commodity that can go up and down in price
  • While some plants can also burn fuel oil, often the price of natural gas and oil are linked – a spike in one industry will effect the other
  • It comes at the time the state is also retiring Indian Point Nuclear Plant, further making the state dependent on gas and oil
  • The plan came online in 1984 after the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1977 and has pollution controls that exceed many of the older coal plants still operating in across the country
  • To be sure, it was one of dirtest industrial plants in New York when it closed – because coal is a dirty nasty fuel
  • It also has generated massive piles of waste – coal ash and gypsum-fly ash mix that is landfilled in massive mounds on site
  • While it’s hard to defend building new plants in an era when we are facing climate change, I think it made sense to retain this plant on the grid, especially when there isn’t renewable energy right away to replace it

New York’s last coal-burning power plant closes on Lake Ontario shore – The Buffalo News

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New York’s last coal-burning power plant closes on Lake Ontario shore – The Buffalo News

This always was an odd plant is how it was connected to NYSEG' grid. Essentially the output of the plant was connected to NYPA's Niagara - Edic line. The electricity was transfered to the Pennsylvania grid which in turn back feed it to the massive coal fired plant in Homer City outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania which in turn has a 345 kV line that runs from Homer City Pennsylvania to Elmira which powers a lot of the NYSEG electric grid.

But all and all, it's actually a pretty modern coal plant with good scrubbers but uneconomic to operate with the low cost of natural gas and the high cost of the fees associated with moving the energy such a crazy way.