The biggest obstacle standing between 150 new, high-paying jobs and the City of Niagara Falls can't be found on Pine Avenue or Main Street, not in LaSalle or even DeVeaux. It can only be found, and can only make sense, in the mind of state Rep. Francine Del Monte, of Albany and Lewiston.
Northern Ethanol, a Canadian corporation currently involved in the manufacture of ethanol fuel used in a growing number of so-called hybrid automobiles, has proposed a $245 million project on 47th Street here that would not only create 150 new jobs, but clean up one of the brownfields that have profoundly retarded development throughout the city.
The Northern facility would produce 108 million gallons of ethanol per year for use by vehicles in combination with gasoline at the site of the former Praxair. Northern would also annually produce 400,000 tons of dry distiller grain, a livestock feed, which is a by-product of ethanol production.
In May, the New York Power Authority Board of Trustees approved the allocation of 9,000 kilowatts of hydropower to Northern, a step thought at the time to overcome the last major obstacle in attracting the company to Niagara Falls.
But when Gov. Eliot Spitzer left office in disgrace following a degrading tryst with a prostitute, one of the first things incoming governor David Paterson did was to suspend the state's brownfields remediation program at least until July, saying that it was inefficient and a waste of the taxpayer money. Since state funding under the program was a large part of the incentive package offered to Northern, the entire deal has been in limbo ever since.
City and county officials, along with state Sens. Antoine Thompson and George Maziarz, have sought Del Monte's help for more than a month to get the project back on track, but thus far their pleas have fallen on deaf ears.
"Francine is getting flak from people in the environmental community who argue that corn-based is not all that green and won't really solve our long-term national problem," Niagara Falls Mayor Paul Dyster told the Niagara Falls Reporter. "I know those arguments very well and tend to agree, but I still support the project."
Dyster said that, in the short term, energy security and symbolic efforts aimed at independence from OPEC are worthy enough goals and, in the long term, a company like Northern, which is willing to make such a substantial investment here, is undoubtedly doing so with an eye toward the next generation of biofuels.
"I think the pattern we're going to see here is financing of plant construction based on profits from corn-based ethanol, and then a transition into more sustainable fuel alternatives as the technology advances," Dyster said.
"And that's something I want us to be in on on the ground floor."
Maziarz said he is stunned that an elected representative would put something she'd heard from some nebulous group of "environmentalists" ahead of the needs of her own constituents.
"This is about good jobs and a company that's willing to make a substantial investment in the city of Niagara Falls," he said. "For whatever reason, she doesn't seem to think that job creation here is a priority, and that's just unconscionable."
To be sure, Del Monte's ultraclose relationship with the Seneca Nation of Indians has often made it seem as though she's more interested in job creation at the Seneca Niagara Casino than here in the city. And her allegiance to disgraced former mayor Vince Anello and his obstinate opposition to allocating even $1 million a year for the development of Niagara Falls International Airport delayed the construction of a new terminal there for more than two years.
While she has worked tirelessly on behalf of the tiny affluent communities that make up the "Wine Trail" along the southern Lake Ontario shoreline, she has all but ignored Niagara Falls, and once even bragged of luring a Starbucks franchise coffee shop here, as though it actually represented an accomplishment.
It would be difficult to come up with the name of a state representative in memory who has served in office as long as Del Monte while bringing so little back to the largest city in the district she serves.
The brownfields remediation moratorium imposed by Paterson is also adversely affecting a $14 million North Tonawanda project proposed by Remington Rand that would create more than 100 new jobs in that community.
Tragically, while $1 billion in brownfields tax credits are available throughout the state, less than 0.1 percent of that -- just $100,000 -- has been allocated for use in Niagara County, and that for the construction of yet another chain restaurant on Niagara Falls Boulevard.
While the county Legislature unanimously passed a resolution sponsored by Legislators Richard Updegrove and Andrea McNulty calling for action on the part of the state to address this inequity, there has been no indication that Del Monte even looked at the bill, which was sent to her office by certified mail.
Brownfields remediation and redevelopment has been deemed a top priority in New York state, as these areas represent both public health hazards and economic obstacles here.
"This program is critical to the economic recovery of Niagara County," Maziarz said. "Here you're talking $245 million in private investment and 274 new jobs here, and the position of the governor and the state representative seems to be 'So what?'"
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | June 10 2008 |