HARRISBURG, PA. — If the massive power line proposed for our region ever gets built, it won’t be because no one tried to stop it.
Eleven regional and national environmental organizations have joined the growing opposition to the federal ruling that would allow power lines like New York Regional Interconnect to bypass state approval.
Those groups – including Sullivan County’s Catskill Mountainkeeper, the Sierra Club, the National Wildlife Federation and the Civil War Preservation Trust – said yesterday that they will sue the Department of Energy over its recent designation of a mid-Atlantic National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor, which includes most of New York state and all of Sullivan and Orange counties. These areas could be sliced by the 190-mile-long NYRI power line stretching from Utica to New Windsor.
The groups say the DOE violated the National Environmental Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act by failing to study the “potential harmful impacts of the corridor on air quality, wildlife, habitat and other natural resources.” They’re asking the U.S. District Court in the Middle District of Pennsylvania to force the DOE to complete an environmental impact statement on the corridor.
Pennsylvania has already sued the DOE, and several states, including New York, have voiced opposition. The environmental groups plan to file the suit Monday.

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080111/NEWS/80110024/-1/NEWS