WMHT, Channel 17, is to broadcast a one-hour program taped at the College during a recent conference titled “New York's Utility Crisis: The Cost of Power.”
The program is to air Tuesday, May 28, at 9 p.m. on WMHT. (It also is to be broadcast on WMHQ, Channel 45, on Monday, June 3, at 8 p.m.) The program is being broadcast on eight
other New York public television stations the same week.
New York Governor George Pataki introduces the program.
The event, sponsored by the College's Graduate Management Institute and presented in
Nott Memorial's Dyson Hall, featured an unprecedented meeting of major players in the
state's energy future. No previous public meeting has included representatives from as
wide a range of constituencies.
With the high cost of electric power widely agreed to be a big drag on New York's
economy, participants addressed such key issues as pricing, taxation, strandable costs,
independent production, and trends in nonresidential demand. They considered the options
and challenges facing New York's power-generation companies as well as opportunities to
promote economic growth throughout the state.
Moderator Ed Dague (for WMHT Educational Telecommunications) led 10 discussants
including William Davis, chairman and CEO, Niagara Mohawk Power Corp.; Joseph Kearney,
president and CEO, U.S. Generating Co.; and Eugene Zeltman, commissioner, New York State
Public Service Commission.
The program — taped April 30 — is especially timely because it took place during
hearings by the state Public Service Commission on whether to allow state electric
utilities to compete openly. The PSC announced on May 16 that it would endorse a form of
open competition, news that is included in an updated introduction to the program.