The exploitation of our upstate natural resources, particularly in New York City, bears a striking resemblance to the European method of colonization. Colonization was a deliberate process of controlling natural resources to improve their standard of living and ensure that the natural resource owners never became their competitors.
Our elected officials are silent. It is not Oneonta’s responsibility to ship our clean hydroelectric power upstate because of political reasons closing a nuclear plant, or to offset the massive coal power in Manhattan.
Manufacturers like Micron want cost-effective power for expansion and development. New York City’s economy is in deep trouble, and the majority of one political party is part of the problem.
Instead, Oneonta should promote economic development with low-cost hydroelectric power, thereby promoting the restoration of the middle class. The reliance on significant tax breaks for housing and economic development has had only marginal success, but is never sustainable due to a lack of past revenue. Someone has to pay the bills.
Instead of providing cheap energy to New York City, the Goodyear Lake hydroelectric power plant should be used to lower the cost of residential and commercial development in Oneonta, leading to a middle-class exodus and a surge in taxpayers.
This includes research and development in the field of heat generation and even large-scale geothermal energy for hybrid residential/commercial development. Even the East Sidney Dam can be upgraded to become a low-cost energy source for development. What is needed is a regional energy agency to coordinate the development of hydropower and even other methods of generating electricity that serve the interests of potential private commercial interests.
“If you build it, they will come” is not fiction but has been proven to be fact. Let’s not resort to useless windmills.
Harvey Brody
oneonta
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