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The article below was published in Hometown Oneonta last week. It's just some thoughts on job creation that I had when Amazon announced its headquarters selections. If we want job creation in this area, the last four paragraphs frame our situation and a solution. They're the truth you rarely find in our local media.
Dick
Otsego County wants jobs: New York City likewise. Recently Amazon chose NYC and Northern Virginia for their new headquarters sites, each employing 25,000 people with an average salary of $150,000. Nice work if you can get it, and 238 localities went for it. Assuming the search wasn't rigged, what were the criteria for selection?
Adjusted for scale and to specifics related to the nature and culture of Big Tech, Amazon's selection criteria was similar to those assessed by Otsego Now, our local Industrial Development Agency (IDA). Logistically, both note the importance of proximity to airports, rail, and interstates. Both stress "shovel readiness." ie., access roads, utilities, and zoning ready to go on Day One. Money talks. Amazon and Otsego Now both acknowledge incentives are needed in closing the deal; $5.5 billion in City and State money to Amazon in NYC, a more modest PILOT (Payment In Lieu Of Taxes) to firms relocating in Otsego County.
Otsego is a good place to live and work. Want a bagel with schmear? You got it! A church supper with the neighbors. Bring a dish-to-pass! From a belly flop in a winter lake to a summer opera at Glimmerglass, Otsego has it all. Amazon calls this criteria "Diverse Culture" and tells us that's what their employees want. Under another broad criteria, "Community," Amazon found its employees wanted to further their educations and have access to music and the arts. Amazon chose accordingly. More than most rural counties. Otsego has these amenities.
Under the criteria "Labor Force" Amazon chose catchment areas of at least one million people with follow-up projections of the number tech-savvy potential employees. Both NYC and Northern Virginia had 250,000 possible hires, approximately 20% recent grads with tech degrees. Obviously Otsego County wouldn't have met Amazon's specific needs but our labor force is ample and educated.
Otsego County would also have fared poorly under the criteria of "Connectivity." Amazon rated each geographical applicant on their fiber and cell service capacity. Can you hear me now, Otsego? The answer would be, "No!"
"Sustainability," a virtue-signaling concept in the Facebook/Amazon/ Netflicks/Google (FANG) world, was another criteria. Amazon's methods to attain this goal aren't clear. Don't expect 600 foot windmills lining the East River. Rooftop solar is unlikely to power the product of 25,000 workers. However, the Indian Point nuclear facility, Con Edison, and Brooklyn Union Gas will still provide .
Wisely, Otsego wasn't among the 238 applicants for Amazon'x headquarters expansion. However, in spite of New York's high taxes and excessive regulation, the County does have most of the "right stuff" -- the logistics, a civic willingness to get things done (including PILOTS), a labor force, a culture and community able to attract people from far and wide. We fail on fiber and cell phone connectivity. We also fail on utility infrastructure. We need the availability of affordable energy. That means gas.
Case in point. Recently a company met with Otsego officials to discuss a distribution center site being prepared in Schenevus. First question: is gas available? The pipeline situation was explained. New York has a Governor who has banned gas and obstructed new infrastructure. Possible alternatives were presented. As one of the participants said, "The air went out of the room." The meeting continued but it was over. With the key incentive off the table, we'll never know how many jobs Otsego lost.
We do know some of the losses through our IDA. A local landmark restaurant wanted to bottle its sauce locally but had to look elsewhere due to the lack of affordable energy -- gas. A projected 300 jobs lost. A Chinese company did a feasability study with the IDA. It rejected the intended site due to the lack of gas. Another 175 jobs lost. These are two opportunities were we know our losses. Unknown are the losses from companies who reject Otsego County out of hand -- no gas.
The comparative numbers on energy costs tells it all. Virginia's electric utility regulator recently listed the costs of wholesale electicity by source. Offshore wind costs 13.1 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh). Onshore wind costs 9.4 cents per kWh. It costs 5.7 cents for new solar. Gas clocks in at 3 cents wholesale. The use of gas for heat presents similar savings.
If we want to jump-start job growth in Upstate New York, we'll need the availability of gas. It's that simple. Nice work, if we can get it, but not likely anytime soon with Andrew Cuomo as Governor.
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Washington — US Secretary of Energy Rick Perry on Thursday reiterated his arguments that energy infrastructure is critical to national security, echoing a theme that has percolated in the national debate about whether new measures are needed to prop up coal and nuclear power plants and promote natural gas pipeline projects.
"It is really important for us as a country to have an energy infrastructure plan in place because it is about the national security of this country," Perry said at an event held by the Consumer Energy Alliance. "Energy security is national security."
Perry added: "99% of the military bases in the continental United States are attached to our civilian grid."
After a long pause, he concluded: "Bam! Drop the mic!"
The national security narrative has come up time and again as the Trump administration has floated ideas to stave off the retirement of coal and nuclear power plants.
A leaked Department of Energy memorandum laid out a national security justification for using emergency authorities to prevent baseload retirements.
MILITARY BASES
And the chief of staff at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission reportedly said it is working with DOE and other agencies to identify plants that are critical to ensuring that military bases, hospitals and other critical infrastructure can maintain operations in a disaster. FERC later clarified that it is providing technical support rather than aiding in developing policy.
When Perry spoke at a House of Representatives Science, Space and Technology Committee hearing in May, he questioned whether "states have the right to block a pipeline across their state that will have a national security implication or an economic implication on individuals."
On Thursday, Perry was asked to weigh in on New England's infrastructure constraints. "Why in the world today, with America being the number one oil and gas producing country in the world, would Boston and the Northeast have to have to rely upon gas from Russia? I don't get that," he said.
LNG IMPORTS
He was likely referring to the offloading of a tanker originating from Russia's Yamal plant during a cold snap last winter to replenish stocks at the Distrigas LNG terminal in Boston. New England leans on imported LNG to supply power plants during cold weather when the region's gas pipeline capacity is dedicated to home heating.
ISO-New England has proposed a cost-of-service agreement with Exelon to prevent the retirement of units 8 and 9 at the Mystic plant in Massachusetts, which provide about 1,400 MW of capacity and use LNG from Distrigas, rather than pipeline gas, for fuel supply.
PIPELINE POLITICS
Perry said politics in New York make it very difficult for US-produced gas to travel across the state. On a recent trip to Ukraine, Perry talked up US LNG as an alternative to Russian gas, "because the Russians are not necessarily reliable," he said, spurring chuckles from the audience.
"I would suggest that those that are making decisions in the United States that think somehow or another Russian gas is more reliable than US-produced gas, they might want to think about that," he said
Two major projects have been blocked by New York -- Williams' 121-mile, 650 MMcf/d Constitution Pipeline (CP13-499), and National Fuel Gas Supply and Empire Pipeline 's 97-mile, 497 MMcf/d Northern Access 2016 project (CP15-115). Both were denied water quality certifications. But FERC recently waived New York's Clean Water Act Section 401 review for Northern Access on the grounds that state regulators took too long to act.
-- Kate Winston, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
-- Edited by Keiron Greenhalgh, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, lost Upstate New York, according to the unofficial election night tally.
Cuomo won six out of 50 counties Upstate: Albany, Erie, Monroe, Onondaga, Tompkins and Ulster. Four of the counties happen to be home to the state's big Upstate cities: Albany, Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse.
Republican Marc Molinaro carried 44 counties Upstate, plus three Downstate counties: Dutchess County, where he is county executive, Orange County and Putnam County.
Molinaro also won more votes than Cuomo Upstate, with 1,090,382 votes (54.9 percent) to Cuomo's 894,800 (45.1 percent), according to unofficial results.
A Siena Poll released the weekend before the election showed Cuomo losing in Upstate NY to Molinaro. The poll showed Molinaro leading Upstate by 10 percentage points (46-36 percent).
Cuomo lost Upstate in 2014, winning only eight counties while Republican Rob Astorino won 42 counties. In 2010, Cuomo won 37 Upstate counties to Republican Carl Paladino's 13.
But Upstate NY does not get to elect its own governor.
Cuomo swept New York City, according to Tuesday's unofficial results.
There are no Republicans in statewide office in New York.
The vote in Onondaga County was:
Cuomo: 79,064
Molinaro: 70,626
Howie Hawkins (Green): 4,900
Stephanie Miner (SAM): 5,314
Larry Sharpe (Libertarian): 4,485
Cuomo had no trouble winning Onondaga County in 2014. He had almost 70,000 votes to Republican Astorino's 53,487. (That year, Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins won almost 11,000 votes in Onondaga County, his home.)
There are 11.6 million active voters in New York state. About 32 percent live Upstate.
Enrollment in Upstate New York leans blue with 1.4 million Democrats, 1.2 million Republicans and 855,000 voters not enrolled in a party, according to the latest voter enrollment records at the NYS Board of Elections.
(For this report, Upstate includes the 50 counties north of Dutchess and Orange counties.)
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