The New York Power Authority had spent the past few years working with a variety of community organizations and municipalities in creation of a stakeholders’ agreement that defined the framework of the application NYPA had sent to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in regards to the relicensing of the Niagara Power Project. In the time leading up to and then following the submission of their application in August, NYPA has been attacked from all angles. Countless municipalities and politicians who were originally unconcerned and had not taken the time to be involved in the creation of the agreement have come in at the eleventh hour and beyond, waging a power struggle over power itself.

This protest may be somewhat of a slap in the face of all who devoted countless hours to the shareholders process, but who can blame these dissenters? The sizable demands to which NYPA pandered to in their application have bordered on the ridiculous. Tens of millions of dollars have been allocated not only to the communities themselves, but to hundreds of special interest needs in the Niagara Frontier as well. These funds cover anything from trail construction to parking lots to habitat improvement endeavors to numerous capital improvement projects.

The money hungry powers-that-be who have now entered the picture – entities like Congressman Higgins, Senator Schumer, and the city of Buffalo - could not help but take notice of all the frivolity and are now clamoring for their own piece of the pie. They, too, want to feast upon NYPA’s generosity. They, too, have brought excess to new heights, none greater than Higgins’s demand for $10 million annually earmarked to develop the waterfront in the mismanaged metropolis of Buffalo.

All of the wishes and hopes of these groups may seem wonderful at first glance. Most of the stakeholders involved had their hearts in the right place and were appropriately taking advantage of a financial windfall that was presenting itself to all. There exists an error in their ways, though, that being the assumption there exists an endless supply of money within NYPA’s coffers. The stakeholders of past, present, and future are right to a point, as the Niagara Power Project is quite the cash cow as made evident by the fact (one NYPA disputes) that it subsidizes all of NYPA’s downstate power plants. But, it cannot be stripped of all profits without the most dire of consequences…increased electrical rates. NYPA will ultimately look out for its best interest, ensuring its survival as a self-sustaining business entity. To do so while maintaining these exorbitant socio-economic "contracts" will require NYPA to increase the rates of electrical power, therefore subsidizing its generosity.

This could prove to be the straw that breaks the camels back, this camel being local electrical users. Electrical rates for Western New Yorker consumers and businesses are already at unprecedented levels. According to 2004 data provided by the New York Public Policy Institute, all sectors within New York’s economy combined are paying 11.6 cents per kilowatt-hour. This cost is 57% greater than the national average of a relatively paltry 7.38 cents per kilowatt-hour. Were we to lose what little benefit we were receiving - or the bigger benefit we could be receiving - from the Niagara Power Project, this gap would increase and our pocketbooks would become even more empty, further damning us heavily-taxed, heavily-burdened New Yorkers.

The only way to rectify this situation and give locals some semblance of industrial, commercial, and residential competitiveness would be to throw out the stakeholders’ agreement and start fresh. Despite what the stakeholders may want us to believe, NYPA should not be in the business of funding the fixing of street lights, the building of playgrounds, or the creation of fish spawning sites. NYPA’s true goal - and only goal - should be to satisfy we the customers with their product…affordable hydroelectric power. This power can only be made affordable through the creation of a new agreement the sole purpose of which would compel NYPA to keep the project’s power in Western New York. Residents of the Niagara Frontier would benefit more from power bills cut in half than they would from all the pork barrel spending and associated fluff called out by the relicensing processes.

The real stakeholders – the homeowners and businesses using the power – are the silent majority in this whole process. Their needs should be considered and placed above all. Western New York’s future depends on it.