New York Regional Interconnection project map

Opposition to the project

There is an antecedent right in the Delaware River watershed to what we now see with increasing frequency in the West with local jurisdictions and citizens’ groups fighting back against Washington.

Excerpts from a book that I may or may not finish some day:

“The Tennessee Valley Authority, a cornerstone of President Roosevelt’s New Deal activism, gave the Corps unprecedented authority to build dams and hydroelectric plants in four states. The TVA might have been a godsend in the rural South, but was viewed as a federal power grab by politicians in the Delaware River Basin. They were determined to not allow Washington to control what happened to their river.

“ . . . In 1959, support for the [Tocks Island] dam took a giant leap with creation of the Delaware River Basin Commission, comprised of the governors of the four states in the basin and a non-voting member from the federal government. The Corps would oversee construction and Washington would put up the money, although unlike the TVA, the states would have substantial control.”

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As to the state of the road, I find it amusing that it is “inverted” with respect to the common situation in the West, where activists do not want the Forest Service to create public roads through wild areas (roads often used by extractive industries like the timber industry). Here (Old Mine Road) it is a case of private parties blocking access to (and seizing control of) a public road (misappropriating it as their driveway, effectively). To me this is similar to the beach situation in California with parts of the beach being fenced off now and then (such as in Malibu).

I am intimately familiar with the N.J. portion of Old Mine Road and environs. They include wonderful forests, meadows, streams and a few hard-to-find waterfalls.