Our History.

 

Communities For Local Power (CLP) was formed in late 2012, to fight the takeover of Central Hudson by Fortis, Inc., a Canadian corporation that paid $1.5 billion for the acquisition. CLP’s mission—to create a locally-based, clean energy economy—and our name emerged from the crucible of that initial fight. Several of our members (all female) were also then starting a transition town in Rosendale. We applied the ideas of resiliency and self-reliance to build a new local movement, recognizing that our strength in responding to the dangers posed by climate change would lie in the creation of active and informed communities. Several of the original CLP members had created the Rosendale Peace Parade against the Iraq war. Two of us (Manna Jo Greene and Jen Metzger) were then and are still elected officials. We came from different fields, from international education and arts to energy research and activism. We all sought a way to act urgently and constructively in the face of climate change. For six years, as volunteers, we met weekly in one of our member’s kitchens, as the Kitchen Cabinet.

The story of our activities has several chapters:

 

The fight against Fortis

We found out that Fortis had a terrible history in Belize, where it developed a dam on an earthquake fault and imposed such unfair rate hikes that it was actually expropriated by the Belize government. British Columbia built a new transmission line that increased rates and lowered property values, but over which no additional power was transmitted. In the fight against Fortis, CLP almost won. We formed a broad coalition including municipalities, labor, and grassroots organizations.

 

Supporting local grassroots groups

In our work with grassroots groups, we were particularly impressed by For The Many (formally Nobody Leaves Mid-Hudson), which in its work around foreclosures had uncovered many unfair practices by Central Hudson. CLP arranged a meeting with PSC members and Nobody Leaves organized testimony by their members, including reports of shutoffs based on lies and shutoffs of families with infants dependent on electrical equipment. The result was a rare formal investigation of unfair shutoff procedures. This kind of work is becoming more central to CLP’s mission.

Learning about the energy system—Danskammer and the REV

We became increasingly motivated by everything we were learning about energy policy and ownership's unstable, environmentally destructive, and financially-driven character. An example: Danskammer (in Newburgh), constructed in the 1950s, was about 1/3 coal-fired and heavily polluting, having been grandfathered in under 1970s pollution control laws. It also had a “once-through” cooling system using Hudson River water that was extremely damaging for fish and other aquatic life.

 

Understanding and educating about our energy system (the REV, solar contracts, and more)

Over the six years of our existence, CLP has sponsored dozens of public forums, symposiums, and actions, which have been covered quite frequently by the press. In addition to the issues mentioned here. Examples include a meeting to spread the word about unfair contracts being foisted on landowners by a big solar company (attended by 50 people on a snowy night), a state-wide convening on Community Choice Aggregation (CCA, see below), and many, many other events.

Opposing the New Capacity Zone

CLP also fought against the so-called “New Capacity Zone,” imposed in May 2014 by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC—a development that the PSC and even Central Hudson opposed

 
 
 
 

Helping bring CCA to New York

Early on, we made the acquaintance of Paul Fenn, who invented CCA in Massachusetts in 1995, as a form of municipally-driven aggregation that includes all the municipalities’ rate-payers who do not opt out.

Opposing and preventing new fossil-fuel infrastructure

CLP launched the campaign against the 200-mile project of Pilgrim Pipelines Holdings, LLC, a company founded by Koch Industries alumni. The pipelines would carry highly flammable Bakken formation crude oil from Albany, NY, to Linden, NJ, and refined products northward.

 

Helping municipalities switch to LED streetlights

CLP partnered with Abundant Efficiency, LightSmart Energy Consulting, and Courtney-Strong Inc. (the project lead) in the Mid-Hudson Street Light Consortium (MHSC)—an NYSERDA-funded project to create a more affordable pathway to LED street light conversion for municipalities in Central Hudson, Orange & Rockland, and NYSEG territories. Converting to LEDs can deliver energy savings to municipalities of at least 65%, and can result in substantially lower street lighting bills—especially if municipalities take ownership of their lights and eliminate rental costs.

 

Building Community Energy in Kingston and beyond.

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Keeping rates down

CLP has participated as a Party in Central Hudson rate cases in 2015 and 2018. In the most recent rate case, our advocacy led to the first reduction ever in the company’s fixed charge—the amount per meter a customer pays irrespective of whether any energy is used.