Developers tie project that would go through Madison County to national goal.

The developers of a controversial high-voltage power line project are tying their efforts to President Barack Obama's goal to plant more than 3,000 miles of new transmission lines nationwide to promote renewable energy and create jobs.

New York Regional Interconnect published an advertorial in the Albany-area publication The Capitol this week, which called on elected officials to support its $2.1 billion project "at a time when our deeply stressed state budget would be hard-pressed to pay for a large infrastructure upgrade."

"In addition to improving energy reliability, NYRI's private capital investment in transmission means jobs, increased tax revenues and further development of clean renewable energy sources that rely on transmission," the column reads. "Discouraging such a project also creates a severe chilling effect on other would-be private investments in New York."

The advertisement quotes Obama's first weekly address after taking the oath of office, in which he promises to improve the nation's electric grid by building new transmission lines from coast to coast to accommodate alternative sources of energy, including wind, solar and biofuels.

"Thanks to our recovery plan, we will double this nation's supply of renewable energy in the next three years," Obama reiterated in his address to Congress this week. "We will soon lay down thousands of miles of power lines that can carry new energy to cities and towns across this country."

Developers say the NYRI project fits the bill exactly. The project was announced in mid-2006 as a means of transporting excess energy from Upstate New York to consumers in New York City, where it is needed.

In addition to backlash from property owners all along the proposed line's route, which includes the southeastern corner of Madison County, the plan has also drawn strong opposition from a number of state elected officials, including U.S. Rep. Michael Arcuri, D-Utica, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and former New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, the new secretary of state.

Local opponents of the project in the seven counties along the route between proposed substations in Marcy and Orange County say the project will neither benefit green energy nor solve New York's infrastructure problems.

"We believe that there are many investments that can and should be made to upgrade New York's existing electrical infrastructure, including rewiring of existing transmission lines with lighter, more energy efficient materials, demand management hardware and weatherization of homes and businesses," said Eve Ann Shwartz, an Earlville beef farmer who serves as vice chair for Communities Against Regional Interconnect.

The project is under review by the state Public Service Commission, which will hold evidentiary hearings and site visits in the coming months.

The fight had been compounded on the federal level by the 2005 Energy Policy Act, which empowered FERC to approve power line projects in "national interest electric transmission corridors" designated by the Department of Energy if state commissions failed to act on project applications after a year.

Much of Upstate New York, including parts of Madison, Oneida, Onondaga and Cayuga counties, was included last year in the eastern corridor.