Tagged: energy

Earlier this year, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said one of his top priorities is to create an “energy highway” for New York State’s aging power grid.

So what exactly does that mean?

No one is quite sure yet.

There are no oil refineries in upstate New York, but the Niagara River still carries millions of gallons of petroleum to storage facilities each week.

Crews from the U.S. Coast Guard and fuel supplier NOCO Energy, which has locations along the Niagara River, practiced skimming oil from water Tuesday.

But don’t worry, it was only a test.

Scaling back urban sprawl could reduce carbon emissions released by communities throughout the Northeast, according to research done in part by New York scientists and engineers.

The study, conducted by the Hubbard Brooks Research Foundation, focused on nine counties - including Tompkins County in New York.

The study found that a reduction in sprawl limits emissions from the first step of development onward, by preventing the release of the carbon in vegetation when land is first cleared.

"So if you can work on redeveloping previously developed land, and think about land development smartly to try and minimize disturbance, that’s greatly going to reduce the carbon footprint," says Syracuse University professor Charles Driscoll, who co-wrote the study.

For the first time in a long time, political observers had been eyeing New York’s Republican Presidential Primary - wondering if it might actually have an impact on the 2012 race for the White House.

But as New York’s April 24 primary draws near, it appears the nominee has all but been decided before a single ballot is cast. 

With Mitt Romney now the only major candidate left in the race, we look at how his stance on key economic issues could affect upstate New York.

A new report from the Brookings Institution [PDF] finds investment in clean energy is paying off for New York.

Brookings found that the states known to have clean energy funds have invested $2.7 billion in renewable energy in the past decade.

And they're seeing that investment come back four-fold.