This Week in NYPA History

The New York Power Authority, the nation’s largest state-owned electric utility, is marking its 75th anniversary in 2006. Here is a look back at key dates in NYPA history, arranged by week from January through December

Jan. l, 1930: Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt states in his annual message to the Legislature that hydroelectric power generated on the St. Lawrence River should “remain forever in the actual possession of the people of the state or of an agency created by them.”

Jan. 4, 1998: A severe winter storm begins dumping snow and freezing rain on Northern New York, disrupting power supplies by causing widespread damage to transmission and distribution lines. For about a week, NYPA’s St. Lawrence-FDR Power Project in Massena will be the only source of electricity for most of the affected area.

Jan. 5, 1959: Power Authority trustees hold a special meeting on Randall’s Island in New York City to discuss financing of NYPA’s Niagara Power Project.

Jan. 5, 2000: NYPA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer C.D. “Rapp” Rappleyea urges approval of Gov. George E. Pataki’s proposed legislation to extend the “Power for Jobs” program, under which businesses and non-profit organizations receive low-cost electricity in return for commitments to create or protect jobs. Rappleyea notes that pending applications far exceed the 50,000 kilowatts that remain available for allocation in 2000.

Jan. 7, 1993: The turbine and generator for NYPA’s power plant under construction at Holtsville, Long Island, are unloaded from a barge at Port Jefferson.

Jan. 8, 1963: James A. FitzPatrick is elected chairman of the Power Authority, succeeding Robert Moses.

Jan. 9, 1992: NYPA Chairman Richard M. Flynn joins Long Island Lighting Company officials in announcing expansion of NYPA’s High Efficiency Lighting Program (HELP) to Long Island public schools.

Jan. 11, 1960: NYPA Chairman Robert Moses reports that “we are arranging to study, in cooperation with Ontario Hydro, the best use of the flow of the Niagara River.”

Jan. 13, 1930: A bill introduced in the State Legislature calls for establishment of a commission to “devise and report a plan or plans for the development of hydroelectric power on the St. Lawrence River.”

Jan. 13, 2005: NYPA announces a four-year, $135-million life extension and modernization program at its Blenheim-Gilboa Pumped Storage Power Project in Schoharie County. The program is scheduled to begin in September 2006 and continue through May 2010.

Jan. 15, 1998: NYPA’s James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant on Lake Ontario near Oswego reaches the 100 billion kilowatt-hour milestone for lifetime generation.

Jan. 15, 1931: The St. Lawrence Power Development Commission, established by legislation the previous year, issues a report calling for establishment of a power authority to build generating facilities on the St. Lawrence River and arrange for transmission and distribution of the power by private utilities.

Jan. 17, 1956: Governor W. Averill Harriman approves contracts for the sale of power from NYPA’s St. Lawrence Power Project to the City of Plattsburgh municipal electric system, Plattsburgh Air Force Base and the state of Vermont. Sales to neighboring states such as Vermont are required by the project’s federal license.

Jan. 17, 1995: The Power Authority’s High Efficiency Lighting Project (HELP) receives the DSM Achievement Award from the Association of Demand Side Management Professionals.

Jan. 20, 1983: NYPA’s small hydroelectric project at the Kensico Reservoir in Valhalla, Westchester County, produces electricity for the first time.

Jan. 24, 1989: NYPA completes the relocation of the 400 employees in its New York City Office from 10 Columbus Circle to 1633 Broadway.

Jan. 25, 1994: Power Authority trustees vote to name NYPA’s soon-to-be-completed Holtsville power plant on Long Island for Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Richard M. Flynn, whose resignation after more than 8 ½ years in the post will take effect the following week. The trustees cite Flynn’s “many contributions,” including his efforts to help establish a competitive electric utility industry.

Jan. 26, 1948: President Harry S. Truman, in a letter to Congressional leaders, recommends authorization of the St. Lawrence Seaway and Power Project.

Jan. 27, 1987: NYPA announces plans to apply for state and federal approvals of its proposed 26-mile Sound Cable Project, extending from Yonkers in Westchester County to Hempstead in Nassau County, with an underwater crossing of Long Island Sound. The project is intended to increase electric reliability on Long Island.

Jan. 27, 1998: Gov. George E. Pataki announces that allocations of economical electricity to 32 companies under the new “Power for Jobs” program will help to create or protect nearly 21,600 jobs in various parts of the state.

Jan. 28, 1961: Electricity is produced for the first time at the Power Authority’s 2,400,000-kilowatt Niagara Power Project, at the time the largest hydroelectric project in the Western World.

Jan. 28, 1997: Power Authority trustees vote to support establishment of a New York Independent System Operator to administer the state’s transmission system and power markets.

Jan. 29, 2004: NYPA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Louis P. Ciminelli calls in a Toronto speech for “putting mandatory, enforceable standards in place on an international basis” to resolve reliability problems that led to the August 2003 blackout that affected New York, seven other states and parts of Canada.

Jan. 29, 2004: The Power Authority announces plans to build a new, admission-free $5 million visitors center at Hawkins Point for its St. Lawrence-Franklin D. Roosevelt Power Project.

Jan. 30, 1958: The Federal Power Commission issues a license to the Power Authority for construction of the Niagara Power Project.

Jan. 30, 2001: NYPA trustees name the Authority’s White Plains office building in honor of outgoing Chairman and Chief Executive Officer C.D. “Rapp” Rappleyea. The trustees recognize Rappleyea’s leadership of NYPA during his 5-l/2 years in office, as well as his service of more than two decades in the State Assembly.

Feb. 1, 1975: Electricity is produced for the first time at NYPA’s James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant on Lake Ontario near Oswego.

Feb. 1, 1982: Leroy W. Sinclair is appointed president and chief operating officer of the Power Authority.

Feb. 4, 1957: Power Authority trustees vote to enter into an agreement with the state’s Conservation Department regarding establishment of the Wilson Hill Wildlife Management Area as part of the Authority’s new power project on the St. Lawrence River.

Feb. 4, 1957: Power Authority trustees agree to relocate NYPA’s New York City headquarters to office space at 10 Columbus Circle, at a cost of $6-7 per square foot. The previous office had been at 270 Broadway in Lower Manhattan.

Feb. 5, 2000: Lt. Gov. Mary O. Donohue and Power Authority Chairman C.D. “Rapp” Rappleyea dedicate an installation of NYPA solar photovoltaic panels at the Buffalo Museum of Science.

Feb. 7, 1992: NYPA’s Charles Poletti Power Project reports a record gas burn for 1991, using natural gas for 92 percent of its electricity production.

Feb. 7, 1995: Westchester County signs a long-term contract extension to continue purchases of Power Authority electricity, which began in 1976. This is the first such agreement reached between NYPA and its New York City and Westchester County governmental customers.

Feb. 12, 1977: Electricity is produced for the first time at NYPA’s Charles Poletti Power Project, known at the time as Astoria 6.

Feb. 13, 1946: Major General Francis B. Wilby is elected Power Authority chairman after being sworn in as a trustee.

Feb. 13, 2003: A major component in the relicensing of NYPA’s St. Lawrence-FDR Power Project – a comprehensive settlement package for North Country communities, federal and state regulatory agencies and other participants in the relicensing process – is filed with federal regulators.

Feb. 14, 1991: In recognition of its support for minority- and women-owned businesses, the Power Authority receives the National Minority Business Council’s Outstanding Corporate Business Award.

Feb. 14, 2000: The Power Authority and Entergy reach an agreement in principle on the sale of NYPA’s two nuclear power plants to the New Orleans-based utility.

Feb. 15, 1980: Power Authority Chairman John S. Dyson and Newfoundland Premier Brian Peckford agree to explore potential hydropower exports from Newfoundland to New York State.

Feb. 16, 2005: NYPA provides $20,000 to SUNY Cobleskill for an expanded aquaculture program that will assist in fish-restocking efforts in the upper and lower reservoirs of the Authority’s Blenheim-Gilboa Power Project.

Feb. 18, 1983: The American Public Power Association releases survey results showing that NYPA was the nation’s largest public power organization, in terms of sales, in 1981. While NYPA sold more electricity—39.7 billion kilowatt-hours—than the second- and third-place utilities, its revenues for the year—$974.1 million—ranked third, reflecting its low rates.

Feb. 19, 1982: The Power Authority announces that 20 percent of its New York Office staff, about 150 persons, will relocate from 10 Columbus Circle to new offices in White Plains. Most of the employees work in the Nuclear Generation Department.

Feb. 23, 1988: NYPA trustees approve construction of a fishing pier at the Niagara Power Project.

Feb. 23, 1993: NYPA’s High Efficiency Lighting Program (HELP) is expanded to public schools and community colleges throughout New York State.

Feb. 23, 2005: NYPA trustees approve a major contract for computer monitoring and control equipment at the Blenheim-Gilboa Pumped Storage Power Project in anticipation of an upcoming Life Extension and Modernization program. The contract is awarded to Siemens Power Transmission and Distribution, the low bidder.

Feb. 25, 1997: Former Governor Charles Poletti helps the Power Authority celebrate the 20^th anniversary of the power project named in his honor in the New York City borough of Queens.

Feb. 26, 1991: The Power Authority’s High Efficiency Lighting Program (HELP) is expanded to state government facilities throughout New York.

Feb. 26, 2004: New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg joins Power Authority President and Chief Executive Officer Eugene W. Zeltmann to mark installation of eight NYPA fuel cells at city wastewater treatment plants. The projects are part of NYPA’s program to offset the minimal emissions from small, clean power plants it operates in the city.

Feb. 27, 1950: The United States and Canada sign a treaty governing mutual use of the waters of the Niagara River for power production while preserving the beauty of Niagara Falls.

Feb. 27, 1989: NYPA acknowledges permit approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for construction of the Long Island Sound Cable Project.

Feb. 27, 1992: NYPA’s High Efficiency Lighting Program (HELP) is expanded to Long Island public schools.

Feb. 28, 1984: The Power Authority accepts the terms of a pending federal license for a proposed 1 million-kilowatt pumped storage power project in Prattsville. (NYPA would drop its plans for the project several years later in light of state regulatory delays and changed power-supply conditions.)

Feb. 28, 1995: NYPA trustees approve a major program to install energy-efficient refrigerators in all of the New York City Housing Authority’s more than 180,000 apartments. The program was completed in 2004, with savings to the Housing Authority of about $8 million a year.

March 1, 1954: Robert Moses is elected chairman of the Power Authority’s Board of Trustees.

March 2, 1994: Asa George, former general manager and chief engineer, who played a key role in construction of the Power Authority’s first four generating facilities—St. Lawrence-FDR, Niagara, Blenheim-Gilboa and the FitzPatrick nuclear plant—dies in Ithaca at 79.

March 3, 1988: NYPA announces plans to add a $1 million fishing pier to its Niagara Power Project. Also proposed is a boat-launch ramp for the project’s Lewiston Reservoir.

March 4, 1931: Assemblyman Jasper W. Cornaire, a Jefferson County Republican, introduces legislation calling for creation of a Power Authority to develop the St. Lawrence River’s hydroelectric potential. After winning approval in both houses of the State Legislature, the bill will be signed into law by Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt on April 27.

March 8, 1932: The Power Authority issues its first Annual Report, covering developments between May 6, 1931, and February 29, 1932.

March 8, 2002: The Power Authority announces that it intends to seek approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for an alternative approach to its Niagara project relicensing, allowing interested parties an earlier opportunity to participate in the multi-year process.

March 10, 1980: NYPA Chairman John S. Dyson announces a new conservation program—“Button Up”—for approximately 125,000 residential customers served by the state’s municipal and rural cooperative electric systems.

March 10, 1989: The Power Authority signs an agreement with Con Edison under which NYPA will assume full responsibility for meeting the electric needs of government customers in New York City and most of Westchester County while Con Edison will deliver the power. At the time, these customers had a combined peak demand for electricity of about 1,400,000 kilowatts; today’s figure is 1,950,000 kw.

March 11, 1963: NYPA trustees authorize creation of a Power Authority exhibit for the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair.

March 11, 1999: NYPA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer C.D. “Rapp” Rappleyea is elected to the Board of Directors of the Electric Vehicle Association of the Americas.

March 13, 1990: More than 30 employees at NYPA’s Blenheim-Gilboa Pumped Storage Power Project in Schoharie County provide emergency assistance to the community of North Blenheim, rocked by the explosion of a nearby liquid propane pipeline. NYPA’s assistance includes the use of the helipad at its power project for a specially-equipped AeroMed helicopter flown in from a burn center in New York City.

March 13, 2001: Joseph J. Seymour is elected the Power Authority’s chairman and chief executive officer.

March 13, 2002: Acting Power Authority Chairman Louis Ciminelli announces a $3.5 million energy efficiency project for NYPA’s White Plains office building that will cut the building’s energy use by more than 50 percent.

March 14, 1960: Power Authority trustees approve the sale of NYPA-owned land in Lewiston to Mount St. Mary’s Hospital, which opens its present Military Road facility five years later.

March 14, 1983: The Power Authority opens an office in Cooperstown to provide the public with information about its proposed Marcy-South transmission line.

March 14, 2001: Exemplifying the Power Authority’s commitment to worker safety, NYPA announces a milestone reached at its Clark Energy Center in Marcy: two years without a recordable personal-injury accident. The previous record at Clark was one year, set more than a decade earlier.

March 15, 1956: NYPA trustees approve the design for a Power Authority seal, developed by sculptor Paul Manship. Other notable works by Manship include the Prometheus Fountain in Rockefeller Center and the Paul J. Rainey Memorial Gateway at the Bronx Zoo.

March 17, 1930: The New York State Legislature approves a bill creating a St. Lawrence Power Development Commission to study potential construction of hydroelectric generating facilities on the St. Lawrence River.

March 19, 1982: New York Gov. Hugh L. Carey and Quebec Premier Rene Levesque officiate at a ceremony marking the signing of a 13-year contract between the Power Authority and Hydro-Quebec for NYPA’s purchase of 111 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity from Quebec, from 1984 to 1997.

March 19, 1991: John C. Brons is appointed Power Authority president and chief operating officer.

March 19, 1992: The Power Authority announces that construction is about to begin on a new administration building for its James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant in Scriba, near Oswego.

March 20, 1951: The Power Authority Act is amended to include hydroelectric development of the Niagara River as well as the St. Lawrence River.

March 20, 1990: Former NYPA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Frederick R. Clark dies in Naples, Fla., at 73.

March 23, 2000: The Niagara Falls Area Chamber of Commerce honors NYPA for its 19 years of support for “A Festival of Lights,” a local holiday light display begun in 1981.

March 25, 1996: The Power Authority announces an unprecedented accord with federal and state regulators on a cooperative environmental review process for the relicensing of NYPA’s St. Lawrence-FDR Power Project.

March 25, 1999: Mayor Jose Aponte of Carolina, Puerto Rico, known as the industrial capital of the island commonwealth, visits NYPA’s fuel cell at the Westchester County Wastewater Treatment Plant in Yonkers.

March 26, 1991: The Power Authority reports that it has reached a proposed agreement with the Long Island Lighting Company for NYPA to build and operate a natural gas-fueled power plant at Holtsville, Long Island, with the output to be sold to LILCO for 20 years. The agreement remains subject to a public hearing and approval by NYPA trustees and Gov. Mario M. Cuomo.

March 27, 1992: The Power Authority announces it will terminate a contract to purchase one million kilowatts of electricity from Hydro-Quebec because of economic considerations.

March 28, 1989: The Power Authority agrees to underwrite the electricity costs for illuminating the Upper Niagara River Rapids.

March 28, 1995: New York City, NYPA’s largest governmental customer, signs a 10-year contract extension to continue purchases of Power Authority electricity, which began in 1976.

March 28, 2000: NYPA trustees approve the sale of the Indian Point 3 and James A FitzPatrick nuclear plants to Entergy Corp. of New Orleans for $967 million, a record for the U.S. nuclear industry.

March 29, 1991: With strong winds boosting already high river flows, the St. Lawrence-FDR Power Project sets a new production record of 986,000 kilowatt-hours between 3-4 p.m. The previous one-hour record of 977,000 kwh had been set in 1986.

March 31, 1992: The final two grants to communities along the route of NYPA’s Sound Cable transmission project from Westchester County to Long Island are awarded, bringing the total amount of NYPA funding for local projects and organizations to $1,179,775.

April 2, 1999: Wilbur L. Gronberg, a key figure in the early days of the Power Authority’s St. Lawrence project and the facility’s resident manager from 1969 to 1973, dies in Littleton, Colo., at 74.

April 2, 2001: The Power Authority notifies the New York Independent System Operator that Phase One of the Convertible Static Compensator, the world’s most sophisticated transmission control device, is ready for operation at NYPA’s Clark Energy Center in Marcy. The device will increase power flows on New York’s statewide system by nearly 200 megawatts.

April 3, 1947: The Power Authority moves its offices from 80 Centre Street to 270 Broadway in Lower Manhattan.

April 5, 1979: Power Authority trustees vote to sell the assets of the proposed Greene County Nuclear Power Plant in Cementon, effectively terminating the project.

April 5, 1993: High water levels in Lake Erie help the Power Authority’s Niagara Power Project set a new generation record, producing an average of 2,831 megawatts throughout a one hour period. The previous record of 2,792 megawatts was set on June 1, 1992.

April 6, 2002: The first new turbine-generator unit installed as part of a 15-year Life Extension and Modernization program at NYPA’s St. Lawrence-FDR Power Project begins daily service.

April 7, 1931: In a key development leading to the passage of legislation creating the Power Authority, the State Senate votes, 26 to 23, to kill an amendment that would have given the Legislature, rather than the governor, the power to appoint the Authority’s trustees. Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt, in a radio address, hails the vote as a victory for the “influence of Mr. and Mrs. Average Voter” over special interests.

April 7, 1983: Power Authority Chairman John S. Dyson tells leaders of the New York City financial community that the Authority’s economical electricity can fuel New York State’s leadership in “An Age of Electronic Enterprise.” The speech coincides with release of the Authority’s 1982 Annual Report, which features the same theme and marks the debut of a new logo for the Power Authority.

April 8, 1999: Gov. George E. Pataki hails the arrival of three natural gas-fueled boilers at Buffalo’s Early Childhood Center (PS 61) as part of a Clean Air for Schools Program, administered by NYPA, that replaces old, polluting coal furnaces with clean boilers fueled by gas or oil.

April 8, 1999: The Power Authority announces a major energy efficiency project at the Dulles State Office Building in Watertown. The work will include improvements to the building’s heating, air-conditioning and lighting systems.

April 9, 1956: Responding to strong public interest, Power Authority trustees approve the establishment of a temporary visitors program near the construction site of NYPA’s St. Lawrence project in Massena.

April 11, 2001: George L. Ingalls, the longest-serving Power Authority trustee (1967 to 1990), dies in Binghamton at 86. Ingalls was the Authority’s vice chairman from 1973 to 1990.

April 12, 1989: NYPA trustees ratify an agreement under which the Authority will decommission the Long Island Lighting Company’s Shoreham nuclear plant and provide new supplies of electricity to Long Island consumers.

April 13, 1988: The state Public Service Commission unanimously approves the Power Authority’s application to build the Sound Cable Project, a 26.3-mile, 345-kilovolt underground and underwater transmission line between Westchester County and Nassau County, with a submarine crossing of Long Island Sound.

April 15, 1998: The Power Authority completes a $2.6 billion debt restructuring program begun the previous December, in which all of its outstanding bonds are refunded at lower interest rates. As of 2006, the program is on course to save more than $700 million in debt-service costs through 2020.

April 18, 1985: The Power Authority presents rocks containing 400-million-year-old fossils, remains of some of North America’s first known land animals, to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The rocks were unearthed during construction of the Authority’s Blenheim-Gilboa Pumped Storage Power Project in Schoharie County.

April 18, 1994: William J. Cahill Jr., a 40-year veteran of the nuclear power industry, is appointed to head NYPA’s nuclear group.

April 20, 1998: The Niagara Power Project receives a “Community Conservation Award” from the Niagara County Federation of Conservation Clubs for developing a spirit of outdoor awareness through its cosponsorship, with the Federation, of an annual Wildlife Festival.

April 20, 1999: The Power Authority dedicates a 200-kilowatt natural gas-powered fuel cell that it installed at the New York City Police Department’s Central Park police station. The fuel cell, which will produce virtually emission-free electricity, is independent of the power grid; as a result, the police station will be one of the few New York City locations where the lights stay on during the blackout of August 2003.

April 21, 1989: The Sullivan County Soil and Water Conservation District selects the Power Authority for its 1988 District Environmental Award, recognizing conservation measures taken by NYPA during construction of the Marcy-South transmission line.

April 23, 1987: Gov. Mario M. Cuomo signs legislation enabling a wide range of businesses in all parts of the state to receive power from NYPA’s James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant and officially designating “expansion power” from the Authority’s Niagara hydroelectric project for businesses in Western New York.

April 25, 1976: Electricity is produced for the first time at NYPA’s Indian Point 3 Nuclear Power Plant.

April 26, 1994: The Power Authority doubles its funding for the public school and community college segment of its High Efficiency Lighting Program (HELP), from $45 million to $90 million.

April 27, 1931: Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Power Authority Act at his home in Hyde Park. The law creates the Power Authority to develop the hydroelectric power potential of the International Rapids section of the St. Lawrence River.

April 28, 1998: Gov. George E. Pataki announces that more than 100,000 jobs have been protected and 3,723 new jobs have been created thus far in New York State under the Power for Jobs program, administered by NYPA. The program was established by legislation that the governor signed in July 1997, with the first allocations following in December of that year.

April 28, 2000: Lt. Gov. Mary O. Donohue joins Power Authority Chairman C.D. “Rapp” Rappleyea in unveiling energy efficiency efforts at Erie County’s Rath Building in Buffalo, expected to reduce energy costs by $106,000 a year.

April 29, 1942: Gov. Herbert Lehman signs legislation authorizing establishment in New York State of rural electrical cooperatives that would qualify for loans from the federal Rural Electrification Administration. The new law is viewed as complementing the Power Authority Act.

April 29, 1957: Modern Art Foundry in Long Island City is chosen to cast the Power Authority seal, which will be installed at NYPA’s first generating facility, the St. Lawrence project in Massena.

April 29, 1997: A milestone is reached in the relicensing of NYPA’s St. Lawrence-FDR Power Project with release by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation of Scoping Document 1 for public review and comment. The document, prepared by participants in a Cooperative Consultation Process intended to encourage public involvement, identifies issues to be addressed as part of the relicensing.

April 30, 1991: The Power Authority marks its 60th anniversary at Franklin D. Roosevelt’s home in Hyde Park, with Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. the principal speaker. Former Governors Charles Poletti, Malcolm Wilson and Hugh L. Carey also participate, along with Lt. Gov. Stan Lundine.

April 30, 2002: Louis P. Ciminelli is elected chairman of the Power Authority. He succeeds Joseph J. Seymour, who, in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, became executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey while continuing to serve as a NYPA trustee.

April 30, 2004: The Power Authority announces donation of heavy-duty equipment no longer needed at its Blenheim-Gilboa Pumped Storage Power Project to assist in the restoration of a historic steam locomotive owned by the Empire State Railway Museum in Phoenicia, Ulster County.

May 1, 1983: The Power Authority begins stringing two 345-kilovolt transmission lines across the Niagara Gorge, linking Ontario Hydro’s Sir Adam Beck facility with NYPA’s Niagara Power Project. The lines will increase the capability to transfer electricity between New York State and Canada by 1,250,000 kilowatts.

May 1, 1987: Power Authority Chairman Richard M. Flynn launches the Power Authority’s Greater Massena Economic Development Fund by presenting a $1 million contribution for low-interest loans to businesses relocating to or expanding in St. Lawrence County.

May 1, 1989: NYPA announces that a new fishing pier at its Niagara Power Project is open to the public.

May 2, 1939: The Power Authority’s first chairman, Frank P. Walsh, a prominent labor lawyer and civil rights leader, dies of a heart attack at age 74, steps away from the U.S. Courthouse at Foley Square in Lower Manhattan. A week later, Governor Herbert H. Lehman designates Dr. James C. Bonbright, one of NYPA’s original trustees, to succeed Walsh.

May 2, 2001: The first new turbine for the St. Lawrence-FDR project’s Life Extension and Modernization arrives at the project. The 15-year LEM began with engineering and design work in 1998 and is scheduled for completion in 2013 at a cost of $281 million.

May 5, 1950: John E. Burton, vice president of Cornell University and former state budget director, is elected chairman of the Power Authority’s Board of Trustees.

May 6, 1931: Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt appoints the Power Authority’s first Board of Trustees. Its members are Frank P. Walsh, who will be elected chairman; James C. Bonbright; Morris Llewellyn Cooke; Delos M. Cosgrove; and Fred Freestone.

May 6, 1994: The Power Authority’s Richard M. Flynn Power Plant in Holtsville, Long Island, produces its first power.

May 8, 1989: The Power Authority announces it is about to begin construction on the Nassau County portion of its Sound Cable Project. More than nine miles of the 26.3-mile, 345-kilovolt transmission line will run underground between the shore of Long Island Sound at Hempstead Harbor to a Long Island Lighting Company substation in Garden City.

May 8, 2002: The Power Authority begins its policy of donating gently used computers to schools and other educational institutions with an initial delivery of 30 personal computers to the Niagara Falls School District.

May 10, 1990: The first of two 3,000-kilowatt turbine-generators added by NYPA to Crescent Dam on the Mohawk River north of Albany begins generating electricity; the second unit begins operating later that spring. The dam’s two original generators, installed in 1925 with a capacity of 2,800 kilowatts each, were also being rehabilitated and would return to service the following year.

May 10, 1991: Power Authority trustees approve a proposed agreement under which NYPA would build a natural-gas-fueled power plant in Holtsville, Long Island, and supply its output to the Long Island Lighting Company to help meet the electricity needs of Long Island consumers. The previous December, NYPA won LILCO’s competitive bid process mandated by the state Public Service Commission to identify potential new power sources for Long Island.

May 12, 1931: The first meeting of the Power Authority’s Board of Trustees is held at the Albany office of Lt. Gov. Herbert H. Lehman. The trustees elect Frank P. Walsh as chairman and decide that the Authority’s headquarters will be located in rooms 717 and 718 of the State Office Building at 80 Centre Street in New York City. They agree that NYPA will establish an office in Albany “as work progressed.”

May 12, 2004: NYPA President and Chief Executive Officer Eugene W. Zeltmann tells attendees at the Independent Power Producers of New York’s annual legislative conference in Albany that NYPA does “not foresee the need” to build any more power plants or transmission lines of its own and that it expects private developers to provide sufficient additional capacity for the state.

May 13, 1954: President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Wiley-Dondero Bill establishing the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation. The Seaway will be built in conjunction with NYPA’s St. Lawrence project.

May 13, 1999: Lt. Gov. Mary O. Donohue joins NYPA Chairman C. D. “Rapp” Rappleyea and international energy industry officials at a groundbreaking ceremony for the Convertible Static Compensator, the world’s most sophisticated transmission control device, planned for NYPA’s Clark Energy Center in Marcy.

May 15, 1989: The Power Authority announces it is about to begin construction on the Westchester County portion of its Sound Cable Project. More than eight miles of the 26.3-mile, 345-kilovolt transmission line will run underground from Con Edison’s Sprain Brook Substation in Yonkers to the shore of Long Island Sound in New Rochelle.

May 15, 1990: The Power Authority is one of 20 companies submitting competitive bids to the Long Island Lighting Company as part of a process mandated by the state Public Service Commission to help meet the electricity needs of Long Island consumers.

May 15, 1992: For the first time, the Power Authority sponsors alternative-fueled vehicles competing in the American Tour de Sol. One vehicle is the Sunpacer, a solar-powered car built by students at Cato-Meridian High School with technical and financial support from NYPA; the second is a Chevy S-10 pickup truck.

May 15, 2002: NYPA announces installation of a 200-kilowatt natural-gas-powered fuel cell at the New York Aquarium at Coney Island.

May 18, 1982: The Power Authority announces it will apply for federal licenses to expand hydroelectric facilities at Crescent and Vischer Ferry Dams on the Mohawk River north of Albany. NYPA plans to install 6,000 kilowatts of additional capacity at the two sites, which already have 5,600 kilowatts each.

May 19, 1977: Frederick R. Clark, an Albany banking executive and attorney and former state tax commissioner, is elected chairman of the Power Authority, succeeding James A. FitzPatrick, whose retirement will take effect June 1. FitzPatrick will step down after serving as chairman for 14 years, the longest tenure in Power Authority history.

May 20, 2003: The Power Authority establishes a $1.2 million fund to help municipal and rural cooperative electric systems buy electric and hybrid-electric vehicles for their fleets. The program will be conducted in cooperation with the state Municipal Electric Utilities Association.

May 21, 1968: Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller signs legislation authorizing the Power Authority to construct pumped storage and nuclear power facilities. As a result, the Authority will build the Blenheim-Gilboa Pumped Storage Power Project in Schoharie County and the James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant in Oswego County.

May 21, 1974: The first computer terminal facilities are installed in the Power Authority’s New York Office.

May 21, 1988: Electricity flows through all of the Power Authority’s Marcy-South transmission line for the first time as testing of the 207-mile line’s northernmost section begins.

May 22, 1996: Scott B. Lilly, a NYPA attorney for 32 years and the Authority’s general counsel from 1971 to 1976, dies in Brooklyn at 74. Lilly’s career at the Authority spanned the period from construction of the St. Lawrence and Niagara hydroelectric projects through NYPA’s growth into a statewide utility.

May 22, 2002: Governor George E. Pataki presents $4 million to municipalities and school districts in St. Lawrence County as the first payments from a Community Enhancement Fund established by the Power Authority. The fund is one element of a settlement agreement between local governments and the Power Authority related to the relicensing of NYPA's St. Lawrence-FDR Power Project.

May 23, 1995: The Power Authority is honored by the New York State Nursery/Landscape Association for its Tree Power Program, under which NYPA has provided trees to municipal and rural cooperative electric systems on a one-to-one matching basis.

May 23, 2001: Governor George E. Pataki announces that NYPA will return some 800 acres of land acquired during construction of the St. Lawrence-FDR Power Project to local governments in St. Lawrence County. The property is located in the towns of Lisbon, Louisville, Massena and Waddington.

May 24, 1988: The late Theodore “Ted” Hill Jr., a former Power Authority vice chairman who once served as a state assemblyman from northern Westchester County, is honored by Power Authority trustees, who vote to name a new training facility at NYPA’s Indian Point 3 Nuclear Power Plant after him.

May 24, 1994: The Power Authority announces a program to buy old refrigerators from residential customers of the state’s municipal and rural cooperative electric systems. Each customer who turns in an old, inefficient refrigerator will receive $50 plus a new high-efficiency light bulb from the Authority.

May 24, 1995: Power Authority President and Chief Executive Officer S. David Freeman becomes the first electric utility executive to be honored as an Environmental Action Coalition “Green Star.” The group notes that Freeman has doubled NYPA’s financial commitment to energy conservation programs while also emphasizing electric transportation.

May 24, 2002: In response to heightened security concerns following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, NYPA announces plans to relocate its St. Lawrence-FDR Power Project visitors center to nearby Hawkins Point. NYPA’s original visitors center, located inside the project’s power dam, will remain closed except to school groups until the new facility opens in July 2005.

May 26, 1977: Power Authority Chairman James A. FitzPatrick dedicates the newly restored Lansing Manor, a 19th-century home on the grounds of NYPA’s Blenheim-Gilboa Pumped Storage Power Project. Operated as a museum in conjunction with the Schoharie County Historical Society, it opens to the public the following day.

May 28, 1987: New York State’s three living former governors—Hugh L. Carey, Malcolm Wilson and Charles Poletti—join Power Authority Chairman Richard M. Flynn in Astoria, Queens, to mark the 10th anniversary of the power plant named in honor of Poletti.

May 29, 1987: The Power Authority announces that Phillip Bayne will succeed Leroy W. Sinclair as president and chief operating officer upon Sinclair’s retirement in July.

May 30, 1991: Governor Mario M. Cuomo attends the ceremony at a Garden City, Long Island, substation marking the start of operation of NYPA’s Sound Cable Project, completed 18 months ahead of schedule and $46 million under budget. Joining the governor and NYPA Chairman Richard M. Flynn are executives of Con Edison, the Long Island Lighting Company and the Long Island Power Authority.

June 1, 1977: Frederick R. Clark, an Albany banking executive, attorney and former state tax commissioner, takes office as Power Authority chairman, succeeding James A. FitzPatrick.

June 1, 1984: The Power Authority announces the opening of offices in Monticello, Cooperstown, Delhi and Goshen to coordinate preparations for the planning and construction of the 207-mile Marcy-South transmission line.

June 1, 1991: The Power Authority begins supplying electricity to six Long Island companies following completion of the Sound Cable Project, dedicated two days earlier. Economical electricity flowing from NYPA’s FitzPatrick nuclear plant, near Oswego, will protect 3,000 jobs, including nearly 700 new positions, in Nassau and Suffolk counties.

June 2, 1973: NYPA completes successful testing of the first of four units at its Blenheim-Gilboa Pumped Storage Power Project in Schoharie County. During these tests, water is pumped for the first time to the project’s upper reservoir, from which it is released for generation of electricity by the same unit as part of the testing process.

June 3, 1991: NYPA announces the start of a 15-year upgrade at its Niagara Power Project with disassembly of the first turbine-generator unit at the Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant. The program will be completed on schedule in 2006.

June 4, 1994: NYPA’s Richard M. Flynn Power Plant in Holtsville, Long Island, begins full-power operation. The plant had begun limited commercial operation, on schedule, the month before.

June 4, 1999: The Power Authority issues a report to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reflecting NYPA’s ranking as one of the cleanest electric utilities in the nation, based on emissions monitored by the federal government.

June 6, 1969: The Federal Power Commission issues a license for the Power Authority to construct the Blenheim-Gilboa Pumped Storage Power Project in Schoharie County. The Authority’s trustees vote on June 16 to accept the license.

June 7, 1939: James C. Bonbright is elected as the Power Authority’s second chairman, succeeding Frank P. Walsh, who had died in office the previous month.

June 7, 1954: The U.S. Supreme Court dismisses the last legal challenge to Power Authority construction of the St. Lawrence project. Construction will begin in August.

June 7, 1956: Niagara Mohawk’s Schoellkopf hydroelectric plant is destroyed in a rockslide, creating a severe power shortage on the Niagara Frontier and leading to Power Authority construction of the Niagara Power Project.

June 10, 1920: President Woodrow Wilson signs the Federal Water Power Act, authorizing the federal government to license and regulate hydropower projects. As a result, hydroelectric projects subsequently built and operated by NYPA will be subject to federal jurisdiction.

June 11, 1974: The Power Authority’s St. Lawrence project passes the 100 billion kilowatt-hour mark for total power generation. Cumulative generation at the end of 2005 stood at nearly 319 billion kilowatt-hours.

June 12, 1961: Power Authority trustees vote to name the pumped storage plant at the Niagara Power Project “the Lewiston Pump-Generating Plant.”

June 13, 1957: The Power Authority enters into a power-supply agreement with General Motors in Massena.

June 14, 1983: NYPA’s St. Lawrence-FDR Power Project receives the National Safety Council Award of Merit for completing one million man-hours without a lost-time accident during the period from Dec. 8, 1980 to Jan. 31, 1983. The Massena hydropower project is the first NYPA facility to reach this milestone.

June 18, 1932: The United States and Canada sign a treaty pledging cooperation in developing a joint St. Lawrence power and navigation project; however, the U.S. Senate rejects the treaty in 1934.

June 18, 1990: Gov. Mario M. Cuomo and NYPA Chairman Richard M. Flynn announce a $5 million loan program to stimulate the economy of Western New York. The fund today totals about $8.5 million and has helped to create more than 600 jobs in Niagara County.

June 19, 1984: NYPA’s energy dispatch, maintenance and training facility at Marcy is designated the Frederick R. Clark Energy Center in honor of the Power Authority’s chairman from 1977 to 1979.

June 20, 1995: The Power Authority and the New York City Housing Authority announce a multi-year program in which NYPA will provide new energy efficient refrigerators for Housing Authority apartments. At the program’s conclusion in March 2005, new refrigerators have been installed in all of the Housing Authority’s nearly 185,000 units, with annual savings of about $7.7 million.

June 21, 1976: Power Authority electricity flows for the first time to municipal electric systems serving the villages of Freeport and Rockville Centre on Long Island. Service to a third Long Island system—in the Village of Greenport—will begin after completion of transmission arrangements.

June 22, 1950: The Power Authority signs a contract with the federal government to purchase the Authority’s first operating asset—a 77-mile transmission line from Taylorville to Massena. Because of procedural delays, the transaction will not be completed until 1951. The line remains in service today, with some of its original structures.

June 22, 1986: The Power Authority’s small hydropower plant at Hinckley Dam and Reservoir, in Herkimer and Oneida counties, is dedicated and named for Gregory B. Jarvis, a Mohawk Valley astronaut who had died aboard the Challenger space shuttle in January. Jarvis, who was 41 at the time of his death, grew up 20 miles from Hinckley Dam.

June 23, 1988: Power Authority trustees approve a $49 million contract to expand and rehabilitate the Crescent and Vischer Ferry plants, adding 6,000 kilowatts (kw) to the 5,600-kw small hydro facilities. The expansions had been approved as part of NYPA’s federal licenses for the plants in 1984.

June 24, 2003: Governor George E. Pataki announces completion of improvements to Niagara Falls State Park, funded in part by the Power Authority, including renovations to the Niagara Reservation Observation Tower and development of a new Niagara Gorge Discovery Center.

June 25, 1991: Power Authority trustees approve plans for a new $14 million computer system at the Clark Energy Center, the hub of NYPA’s statewide transmission network.

June 26, 1947: The Power Authority issues its first report on the potential for nuclear energy, predicting that the new electricity source will supplement, but not replace, hydroelectric power.

June 27, 1959: Completion of NYPA’s first generating facility, the St. Lawrence Power Project, is celebrated in a dedication ceremony attended by Queen Elizabeth II and Vice President Richard M. Nixon. The international hydropower project, spanning the border between Massena, N.Y., and Cornwall, Ont., had produced first power on July 17, 1958.

June 27, 1974: The Power Authority announces it will apply to the state Public Service Commission for approval to construct a second 230-kilovolt transmission line from its St. Lawrence project in Massena to Plattsburgh. NYPA will go on to build this line, adjacent to the previous one.

June 27, 1997: NYPA announces the launch of its World Wide Web Internet site, at www.nypa.gov. A smaller website, focused on the relicensing of NYPA’s St. Lawrence-FDR Power Project, had been initiated a year earlier.

June 28, 1978: Power Authority trustees approve a proposed contract for the sale of 15,000 kilowatts of hydroelectric power to the Town of Massena if the town’s effort to establish a municipal electric system is successful. The contract is subsequently approved by Gov. Hugh L. Carey and service begins when the Massena system is established in 1981.

June 28, 1985: Richard M. Flynn is elected Power Authority chairman, succeeding John S. Dyson. The vote by Power Authority trustees comes in a meeting at Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Hyde Park home.

June 29, 2004: Lt. Gov. Mary O. Donohue joins Power Authority officials and local dignitaries in celebrating completion of the convertible static compensator (CSC), the world’s most sophisticated transmission control device, at NYPA’s Clark Energy Center in Marcy. Donohue had attended the CSC groundbreaking five years earlier.

June 30, 1980: Power Authority transmission staff begin to relocate from the Production Control Center based at NYPA’s Niagara Power Project to a new facility near Utica called the Marcy Operations and Maintenance Center.

June 30, 1988: The Power Authority’s 207-mile Marcy-South transmission line is dedicated in ceremonies at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City. U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan attends the Javits Center festivities while Lt. Gov. Stanley Lundine participates in a ceremonial start of service at the New York Power Pool Control Center in Guilderland, near Albany.

July 1, 1974: A Federal Power Commission administrative law judge approves the route for a 345-kilovolt transmission line to be built by the Power Authority from its Blenheim-Gilboa Pumped Storage Power Project in Schoharie County to a substation in Leeds, Greene County.

July 1, 1985: The Power Authority begins clearing the first portion of right-of-way for its Marcy-South transmission line, starting near the new line’s point of origin in Oneida County.

July 2, 1990: NYPA Chairman Richard M. Flynn announces the start of a High Efficiency Lighting Program (HELP) for the Authority’s governmental customers in New York City and Westchester County. The program will grow into a series of statewide energy efficiency initiatives that by 2006 will encompass nearly 2,400 schools and other public buildings throughout New York.

July 5, 1973: NYPA’s Blenheim-Gilboa Pumped Storage Power Project begins commercial operation.

July 6, 1999: Power Authority trustees approve an additional $200 million in funding for energy efficiency projects. Of that amount, $150 million will be allocated to government customers using NYPA electricity and $50 million will be spent on public facilities served by other electric utilities.

July 8, 1985: The Power Authority helps celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Niagara Reservation, the oldest state park in America, by sponsoring a laser light show over Niagara Falls.

July 8, 1985: The Power Authority opens a new boat-launch ramp at Hinckley Reservoir, north of Utica, where NYPA is building a 9,000-kilowatt hydroelectric plant as part of a group of small hydropower projects.

July 8, 2003: NYPA joins DaimlerChrysler in announcing a major initiative to place 300 neighborhood electric vehicles in service at more than 40 locations around New York State.

July 9, 1996: The Power Authority unveils a 300-kilowatt rooftop solar electric system—one of the largest in the world and the largest in the Northeast—that it has installed at New York City Transit’s Gun Hill Bus Depot in the Bronx.

July 11, 1939: Leland Olds, the Power Authority’s executive secretary, is appointed to the Federal Power Commission.

July 12, 1969: Groundbreaking ceremonies are held for the Power Authority’s Blenheim-Gilboa Pumped Storage Power Project.

July 15, 1953: The Federal Power Commission issues a license to the Power Authority to build a hydroelectric project on the St. Lawrence River.

July 15, 1974: The Power Authority announces an $800,000 pilot program offering energy conservation measures to residential and small commercial customers of four public electric systems. Free energy audits, low-interest bank loans and free installation of efficiency equipment will be available in the Skaneateles, Sherrill and Groton municipal systems and the Delaware County rural cooperative.

July 15, 2003: The Power Authority joins environmental and governmental groups in announcing that $2 million in NYPA funding is available for local initiatives to reduce air pollution and save energy in the New York City Borough of Queens under the Queens Clean Air Project.

July 15, 2005: The Power Authority opens the doors of its new $5 million St. Lawrence-Franklin D. Roosevelt Power Project visitors center at Hawkins Point.

July 17, 1958: The St. Lawrence hydroelectric project begins operation as the Power Authority’s first generating facility.

July 18, 1978: The Niagara Power Project’s admission-free visitors center—the Power Vista—introduces new interactive exhibits, including a Van De Graff generator and other hands-on devices, to demonstrate the basics of electricity.

July 20, 1959: Full power is delivered from NYPA’s St. Lawrence project, two years ahead of the original schedule.

July 21, 1985: Officials from the People’s Republic of China, including Vice Premier Li Peng, a hydraulic engineer for more than 30 years and future prime minister, tour the Niagara Power Project and attend a dinner hosted by NYPA Chairman Richard M. Flynn.

July 23, 2001: The visitors center at NYPA’s first generating facility, the St. Lawrence-Franklin D. Roosevelt Power Project, welcomes its 5 millionth guest since opening in 1958.

July 24, 2001: NYPA trustees approve the transfer of nearly 800 acres of surplus land at the St. Lawrence-Franklin D. Roosevelt Power Project to neighboring communities.

July 25, 1995: C. D. “Rapp” Rappleyea, a longtime assemblyman and Assembly minority leader, is elected Power Authority chairman and chief executive officer.

July 26, 1994: Former Syracuse Mayor Thomas M. Young is elected chairman of the Power Authority.

July 26, 2005: Joseph J. Seymour is elected Power Authority chairman for the second time, returning to the position he’d previously held from March 2001 to January 2002.

July 26, 2005: Gov. George E. Pataki signs sweeping economic development legislation that, among other provisions, ensures the continued availability of low-cost “replacement power” from the Power Authority’s Niagara project to Western New York industries and creates a block of “preservation power” from NYPA’s St. Lawrence-Franklin D. Roosevelt project that will remain in Northern New York even if relinquished by the project’s current industrial customers.

July 27, 2004: Power Authority trustees approve a $3.7 million contract to start a multi-year program of improvements and enhancements at North Country recreational facilities totaling $17.5 million as part of the St. Lawrence-Franklin D. Roosevelt project relicensing.

July 28, 1975: The Power Authority’s James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant on Lake Ontario near Oswego begins commercial operation. NYPA in 2000 will sell the plant and its Indian Point 3 Nuclear Power Plant in Westchester County to Entergy Corp. of New Orleans.

July 28, 1999: The Power Authority completes a $2.5 million High Efficiency Lighting Project at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan. As part of the three-year project, 16,000 lighting fixtures in museum galleries, offices, conservation areas and garages are replaced.

July 29, 1981: Former NYPA Chairman Robert Moses dies at age 92 in West Islip, Long Island.

July 30, 1973: Trustee George L. Ingalls of Binghamton is elected vice chairman of the Power Authority. Ingalls will retire in 1990, having served as a trustee for 23 years, the longest tenure in NYPA history.

July 30, 1973: George T. Berry is appointed general manager and chief engineer, the Power Authority’s top staff position.

July 30, 1974: An 18th-century dairy barn is reborn as a state-of-the-art visitors center at NYPA’s Blenheim-Gilboa Pumped Storage Power Project, which began operating one year earlier.

July 30, 1996: Power Authority trustees approve $82 million for energy efficiency programs being offered to NYPA’s governmental customers in New York City and Westchester County that have signed new long-term power supply agreements.

July 31, 1973: The Power Authority’s Blenheim-Gilboa Pumped Storage Power Project and Mine Kill State Park, a 650-acre facility built nearby by the Authority, are dedicated, with Lt. Gov. Malcolm Wilson in attendance.

August 1, 1971: William S. Chapin retires as the Power Authority’s general manager. His successor, Asa George, also continues as chief engineer.

August 1, 1979: John S. Dyson is elected chairman of the Power Authority and announces that the Authority will launch a multi-faceted effort “to break OPEC’s stranglehold on this country.” He quickly develops a 10-point program to reduce use of oil from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

August 2, 1976: Power Authority trustees approve the first 16 proposed contracts for sales of electricity from NYPA’s Indian Point 3 Nuclear Power Plant and Astoria 6 oil-fueled plant to public entities in New York City and Westchester County. The contracts remain subject to approval by Gov. Hugh L. Carey.

August 2, 1993: NYPA’s High Efficiency Lighting Program (HELP) is designated “a model of environmental excellence” by the National Environmental Awards Council and is included in the Council’s Environmental Success Index.

August 2, 2002: The Power Authority formally notifies federal regulators that it intends to seek a new license to continue operating its Niagara Power Project, whose original license will expire Aug. 31, 2007.

August 5, 1953: Power Authority trustees accept a license for construction of a hydroelectric project on the St. Lawrence River, issued the previous month by the Federal Power Commission.

August 6, 1982: Construction begins on a 10-kilowatt wind energy system at Morrisville College, co-sponsored by NYPA, which had been exploring wind power projects as a possible alternative to fossil-fueled generation.

August 8, 1968: Power Authority Chairman James A. FitzPatrick announces that NYPA plans to build a nuclear power plant at Nine Mile Point, on Lake Ontario near Oswego. The plant begins operation in 1975.

August 8, 2002: Charles Poletti, the only person to serve both as a New York State governor and a Power Authority trustee, dies at age 99 at his home in Marco Island, Fla.

August 10, 1954: The Power Authority breaks ground for construction of its first generating project, on the St. Lawrence River.

August 11, 1988: Chairman Richard M. Flynn outlines a plan calling for NYPA to take formal responsibility for meeting the full electricity requirements of its public customers in New York City and Westchester County, ensuring reliable supplies of low-cost energy. NYPA and Con Edison sign an agreement the following March to implement the program.

August 12, 1982: The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission grants the Power Authority a license to build and operate a 9,000-kilowatt hydroelectric project at Hinckley Reservoir in Herkimer and Oneida counties. The facility begins generating electricity in 1986 and is named in honor of Gregory B. Jarvis, who grew up nearby and died aboard the Challenger space shuttle earlier that year.

August 13, 1998: Gov. George E. Pataki hails two programs that will ultimately lead to replacement of coal-burning furnaces with clean gas- or oil-fired boilers at 86 public schools in New York City and Buffalo and on Long Island. Twelve schools receive new equipment through a pilot program supported by NYPA and the Petroleum Overcharge Restitution Fund; the others will be covered by the governor’s Clean Water/Clean Air Bond Act of 1996.

August 14, 2003: The Power Authority’s Niagara and St. Lawrence-Franklin D. Roosevelt hydroelectric projects are the only major power plants in New York State that continue to operate when a major blackout hits New York, seven other states and Ontario. For a time, the hydro projects and the Authority’s 765-kilovolt transmission line from Quebec are supplying about 60 percent of the electricity still available in New York.

August 15, 1968: The Power Authority applies to the Federal Power Commission for a license to build a pumped storage hydroelectric project in Schoharie County, about 40 miles southwest of Albany.

August 17, 1978: Thomas F. Moore, Jr., Power Authority general counsel from 1954 to 1971, dies in New York City at 70. Moore played a key role in passage of the federal Niagara Redevelopment Act, which designated the Power Authority to build the Niagara Project, and directed the Authority’s legal efforts during construction of the St. Lawrence and Niagara facilities.

August 17, 1977: The Power Authority announces the opening of Mallet Pond, a 16-acre site stocked with rainbow and brook trout that has been developed as a public recreational facility near NYPA’s Blenheim-Gilboa Pumped Storage Power Project in Schoharie County.

August 18, 2005: The Power Authority applies for a new 50-year federal license to operate the Niagara Power Project; the original license will expire on Aug. 31, 2007.

August 19, 2002: Gov. George E. Pataki announces that all 80,000 kilowatts of low-cost NYPA electricity previously supplied to the World Trade Center have been reallocated to Lower Manhattan businesses displaced as a result of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. About 60 firms, employing more than 40,000 workers, are helped by the program.

August 20, 1956: The Power Authority applies to the Federal Power Commission for a license to build a hydroelectric power project near Niagara Falls.

August 21, 1957: President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Niagara Redevelopment Act, directing the Federal Power Commission to issue a license to the Power Authority for construction of a hydroelectric project near Niagara Falls.

August 21, 1980: Power Authority Chairman John S. Dyson announces that NYPA will begin construction of small hydroelectric projects at two New York City-owned reservoirs—Ashokan in Ulster County and Kensico in Westchester County. The Ashokan Project begins operation in 1982 and the Kensico Project in 1983.

August 22, 1991: The Niagara project’s Power Vista welcomes its five millionth visitor since the center opened in July 1963.

August 24, 1981: Power Authority Chairman John S. Dyson joins executives of the Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa) and the Reynolds Metals Co. in Massena to sign new contracts for the supply of low-cost hydroelectric power from the Authority’s St. Lawrence project to the companies through 2013. (Alcoa acquired Reynolds in 2000 and continued operation of the two companies’ Massena facilities.)

August 25, 1981: NYPA’s first generating facility, the St. Lawrence Project, is renamed in honor of the New York governor largely responsible for the Authority’s creation. The site’s new name is the St. Lawrence-Franklin D. Roosevelt Power Project.

August 25, 1998: The Power Authority agrees to provide $5 million for a new observation tower at Prospect Point in Niagara Reservation State Park. Park officials later decide to fund a major renovation of the existing tower rather than replace it.

August 25, 1998: NYPA trustees approve a plan to transfer the administration and control of the Niagara Economic Development Fund and the Greater Massena Economic Development Fund—two loan programs established by the Power Authority—from the state Job Development Authority to the local county Industrial Development Agencies.

August 27, 1991: The Power Authority and Hydro-Quebec agree to extend by 11 months the review period for a contract for NYPA to purchase one million kilowatts from the Canadian utility. NYPA cancels the contract the following March, citing changed economic conditions.

August 28, 2001: The Niagara Power Project Visitors Center—the Power Vista—reopens to the public following a three-year, $2.3 million renovation.

August 28, 2002: Members of the state’s Municipal Electric Utilities Association join the Power Authority in announcing a joint effort to promote the use of electric-drive vehicles.

August 29, 1988: The Power Authority makes the first two allocations of Economic Development Power from its James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant. The power is available under legislation passed the previous year broadening the types of businesses eligible for FitzPatrick power.

August 29, 2000: Power Authority trustees approve the purchase of up to 11 small gas-turbine generators to avert threatened power shortages in the New York City area in the summer of 2001. The Authority completes installation of the units within about 10 months, helping to keep the lights on in the face of record demand for electricity.

August 30, 1994: The Power Authority’s new combined-cycle power plant in Holtsville, Long Island, is named for former Chairman Richard M. Flynn. The 135,000-kilowatt plant had begun commercial operation in May 1994.

August 30, 1999: Two huge transformers arrive by barge as a first step in the Life Extension and Modernization program planned for NYPA’s first generating facility, the St. Lawrence-Franklin D. Roosevelt Power Project.

August 31, 1993: Chairman Richard M. Flynn dedicates the Administration and Support Building at NYPA’s James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant in Scriba. The new facility consolidates workers previously dispersed among several buildings and trailers around the site.

September 1, 2004: The world’s most advanced transmission control device, recently completed by the Power Authority at its Clark Energy Center in Marcy, near Utica, is used for the first time to redirect power from one transmission line to another. The device, a convertible static compensator, enables operators to maintain reliable power flows under changing system conditions.

September 2, 1998: The Power Authority announces that a new study by the Natural Resources Defense Council and Public Service Electric and Gas Co. of New Jersey ranks NYPA among the environmentally cleanest of the 100 largest electric utilities in the United States.

September 2, 2004: The Power Authority announces that it will join the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority in making $1.5 million available to fund hydrogen technology demonstration projects.

September 2, 2005: The Power Authority awards a $1.65 million contract to B-S Industrial Contracting, Inc., of Gouverneur for construction of an eel ladder at NYPA’s St. Lawrence-Franklin D. Roosevelt Power Project. The installation is part of a $66 million program of enhancements for fish and wildlife to be carried out in connection with the relicensing of NYPA’s hydroelectric facility.

September 7, 2005: The Power Authority announces it is ready to begin testing key generating equipment at a new 500-megawatt natural gas-fueled power plant it is building in Astoria, Queens. The plant begins commercial operation at the end of the year.

September 9, 1987: The New York State Economic Development Power Allocation Board (EDPAB) holds its first meeting, with Power Authority Chairman Richard M. Flynn as its chairman. EDPAB was created by 1987 legislation to recommend business power allocations for Power Authority approval.

September 9, 1999: The Power Authority successfully completes a full-scale practice drill that tests its digital and communications systems and procedures in preparation for transition into the Year 2000. More than 200 staff members participate in the 9/9/99 drill, which begins at 6 p.m. that evening and ends at 3 a.m. the following morning.

September 10, 1934: Trustee James C. Bonbright is elected vice chairman of the Power Authority, succeeding Delos M. Cosgrove, who had died in June.

September 10, 1974: The Power Authority opens a field office at the Oneida County Airport in Oriskany to administer design and construction of its proposed 765-kilovolt transmission line from Quebec to Marcy, near Utica.

September 11, 1997: Eugene W. Zeltmann, deputy chairman of the state Public Service Commission, is named the Power Authority’s president and chief operating officer.

September 11, 2001: Following terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center, transmission of electricity into New York City is ordered cut back as a security precaution. NYPA’s small, clean power plants installed in four boroughs only months earlier help meet the city’s electrical needs.

September 13, 2004: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recognizes the Power Authority as one of 13 organizations participating in the agency’s Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Program, which encourages pollution prevention and pesticide risk reduction.

September 14, 2000: The Electric Vehicle Association of the Americas welcomes NYPA into its “Million Mile Club” as the first electric utility in the Northeast to log one million miles with electric-drive vehicles it has placed in service. At the time, NYPA had helped put into operation 179 vehicles, which had traveled a total of 1,066,938 miles.

September 15, 1953: The Federal Power Commission grants the Power Authority a license to build a hydroelectric power project on the St. Lawrence River.

September 15, 1997: Gov. George E. Pataki announces the start of his Power for Jobs program, originally conceived as a three-year initiative under which NYPA would provide 400,000 kilowatts of low-cost electricity to businesses creating or maintaining jobs in New York State. By 2006, the program was helping to protect more than 300,000 jobs.

September 16, 1949: Trustee George S. Reed is elected vice chairman of the Power Authority, succeeding Fred Freestone, who retired.

September 16, 1996: The Power Authority and the New York City Board of Education roll out the Northeast’s first electric-powered school bus for a 12-month pilot program in the Bronx. The effort is co-funded by NYPA and the city’s Department of Environmental Protection.

September 16, 2002: Gov. George E. Pataki names Power Authority Chairman Louis P. Ciminelli as chairman of the New York State Economic Development Power Allocation Board, which proposes power allocations to businesses and non-profit groups for NYPA approval.

September 17, 1971: Power Authority trustees approve a proposed contract for sale of hydroelectric power from the Niagara Power Project to the City of Jamestown municipal electric system. Power under the contract, which is subject to approval by Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller, will supplement Jamestown’s own generation.

September 17, 1992: Work begins on a four-year overhaul at NYPA’s Blenheim-Gilboa Pumped Storage Power Project in Schoharie County. Each of the project’s four turbine-generators will be successively removed from service and refurbished.

September 17, 2002: NYPA trustees adopt a resolution honoring the late Charles Poletti, the only person to serve both as a New York State governor and a Power Authority trustee, who had died one month earlier at the age of 99.

September 18, 1973: Trustee George L. Ingalls is elected vice chairman of the Power Authority, succeeding Edmund H. Brown, who retired. Ingalls, a member of the board since 1967, will retire in 1990 as the longest-serving trustee and vice chairman in Power Authority history.

September 18, 1974: Power Authority Chairman James A. FitzPatrick warns at the annual meeting of the state Municipal Electric Utilities Association in Lake Placid that the nation will face a worsening energy crisis in the next decade if construction of needed power plants is delayed.

September 19, 1979: George T. Berry, the Power Authority’s executive director, is named the Authority’s first president and chief operating officer as part of a new organizational structure announced by Chairman John S. Dyson.

September 21, 1976: NYPA trustees approve a proposed contract for allocation of 11,000 kilowatts of hydroelectric power to a new municipal electric system in the City of Sherrill, Oneida County. The contract is subject to approval by Gov. Hugh L. Carey.

September 21, 2004: NYPA Chairman Louis P. Ciminelli joins other state and local officials as Gov. George E. Pataki signs legislation creating the Niagara River Greenway Commission. The Power Authority’s financial support of the greenway will become a key element in the relicensing of its Niagara Power Project.

September 21, 1999: A Thomas Hart Benton mural of Father Louis Hennepin’s arrival at Niagara Falls goes on display at the New York State Museum in Albany. The mural, long a popular fixture at the Power Authority’s Niagara Project Visitors Center, is on loan to the museum while the center undergoes renovations.

September 21, 1976: Power Authority trustees approve establishment of a transmission line operation and maintenance center and a training facility for transmission crews in Marcy, near Utica. The trustees will vote the following month to approve location of the Authority’s systemwide Energy Control Center at the Marcy complex.

September 22, 1976: The Power Authority begins supplying electricity to governmental customers in New York City and Westchester County from its Indian Point 3 Nuclear Power Plant in Buchanan.

September 23, 1968: The Power Authority’s nuclear power plant under construction on Lake Ontario near Oswego is named in honor of Chairman James A. FitzPatrick by his fellow trustees.

September 23, 2005: The Power Authority announces the appointment of Timothy S. Carey, until recently the president and chief executive officer of the Battery Park City Authority, as its chief operating officer. Carey, who had served as a NYPA trustee for nearly five years, will be named president and chief executive officer in early 2006.

September 24, 1991: The powerhouse at the Power Authority’s Blenheim-Gilboa Pumped Storage Power Project in Schoharie County is dedicated in honor of George L. Ingalls, the longest-serving trustee in Authority history. Ingalls, who retired in 1990, was a board member for 23 years and vice chairman for 17.

September 25, 2000: NYPA’s Blenheim-Gilboa Visitors Center welcomes its one-millionth guest since opening on July 31, 1974. The honoree is a woman from nearby Greene County, accompanied by friends visiting the U.S. from Scotland.

September 26, 1978: Power Authority trustees approve a proposed contract for the sale of electricity to the Village of Green Island municipal system in Albany County. The contract, to take effect upon approval by Gov. Hugh L. Carey, will mean that NYPA for the first time is serving all of the state’s municipal electric systems and rural cooperatives.

September 26, 1980: Power Authority Chairman John S. Dyson presides at ceremonies marking the start of construction of the Authority’s first small hydroelectric project, at the Ashokan Reservoir in Ulster County.

September 26, 1991: The Power Authority unveils “Tree Power” for the state’s municipal and rural cooperative electric systems. The initial effort includes $250,000 in funding, with NYPA providing one free tree for each sapling bought by its customers.

September 26, 1991: James L. Ford and Ronald W. Ciamaga are named, respectively, as resident managers at the Power Authority’s Niagara and St. Lawrence-Franklin D. Roosevelt power projects. Ford had been resident manager at St. Lawrence-FDR, while Ciamaga had served as superintendent of technical services at Niagara.

September 27, 1988: Power Authority trustees ratify an agreement with Con Edison under which NYPA assumes formal responsibility for meeting the full electrical requirements of public agencies in New York City and Westchester County. The agreement is subject to approval by Gov. Mario M. Cuomo.

September 28, 1998: Power Authority trustees approve a $35 million investment for the world’s most advanced transmission control device, a convertible static compensator, to be installed at NYPA’s Clark Energy Center in Marcy, near Utica. The project will be completed in June 2004, with eventual expenditures of $41 million by NYPA and $13 million by others in the electricity industry.

October 1, 2002: NYPA announces it has been named to CMP Media’s Information Week 500, a listing of the nation’s largest and most innovative users of information technology. Companies named to the list have demonstrated technological, procedural and organizational innovation.

October 2, 1992: Former Power Authority General Manager William S. Chapin dies at 88 in East Patchogue, Long Island. Chapin, who headed the NYPA staff for 17 years, played key roles in construction of the St. Lawrence and Niagara hydroelectric projects and in the Authority’s subsequent growth.

October 4, 1989: In the aftermath of Hurricane Hugo, the Power Authority sends 25 employees to help the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority restore electricity to the island. The team, active for three weeks, includes NYPA specialists in high-voltage transmission construction and repair.

October 4, 2001: The Power Authority receives R&D Magazine’s 2001 R&D 100 award for its work in developing and testing HydroTracTM, a pioneering device for detecting equipment problems in hydroelectric generators.

October 6, 2004: The wildlife management program NYPA administers at its Blenheim-Gilboa Pumped Storage Power Project with SUNY Cobleskill is recognized by the Wildlife Habitat Council. The organization cites a bluebird nest box monitoring effort that is helping to restore populations of New York’s state bird.

October 7, 1986: The Power Authority kicks off its Watt Busters energy conservation initiative for municipal electric systems and rural cooperatives in Skaneateles and Groton.The program offers free home energy audits and installation of conservation equipment, plus low-interest loans for these improvements.

October 7, 1996: NYPA announces plans to install its first fuel cell power plant, at Westchester County’s wastewater treatment plant in Yonkers, aided by an $800,000 grant from the U.S. Departments of Energy and Defense.

October 7, 2002: The Power Authority receives two awards from the Peak Load Management Alliance recognizing NYPA’s efforts to reduce demand for electricity during peak use periods.

October 10, 1960: NYPA trustees vote to name the main generating facility at the Niagara Power Project the “Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant” to honor the Authority’s chairman. The project, being built under Moses’ direction, will begin operation in 1961 as the state’s largest power source.

October 11, 1989: The Power Authority releases results of a poll it has conducted among state residents showing that 58 percent of respondents would be willing to pay more each month to reduce or +eliminate power-plant pollution.

October 13, 1967: NYPA trustees approve Authority participation on several committees of the New York Power Pool, formed by the state’s seven major investor-owned utilities in response to the 1965 Northeast blackout. The Authority subsequently becomes a full-fledged Pool member.

October 13, 2005: With growing concern over rising fuel prices, Power Authority President and Chief Executive Officer Eugene W. Zeltmann urges aggressive energy conservation efforts by the state’s municipal electric systems and rural cooperatives. He later issues similar pleas to NYPA’s governmental customers in New York City and Westchester County and to businesses across New York.

October 15, 1976: NYPA trustees approve establishment of a systemwide Energy Control Center in Marcy, near Utica. The center, to be part of an operations, maintenance and training complex, will replace a Production Control Center established at the Niagara project in 1970.

October 16, 1995: The Power Authority announces it has begun a $1 million improvement program for recreational facilities within the boundary of its St. Lawrence-Franklin D. Roosevelt Power Project in Massena. The effort is a preview of a $19 million recreational improvement plan NYPA will undertake as part of the hydro project’s new federal license, issued in 2003.

October 17, 1974: The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission issues a license to the Power Authority to operate the James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant on Lake Ontario near Oswego.

October 17, 2001: The Power Authority unveils its Clean Commute Program at Grand Central Terminal in New York City. Partnering with the Ford Motor Co. in the largest electric station-car program in North America, NYPA will lease 100 TH!NK electric vehicles for three years to Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road commuters.

October 21, 1999: The Power Authority’s Indian Point 3 Nuclear Power Plant resumes production of electricity following a 40-day refueling and maintenance outage, the shortest to that point in the plant’s history.

October 22, 1982: The Power Authority’s small hydroelectric project at Ashokan Reservoir in Ulster County begins producing electricity.

October 22, 2003: The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approves a new 50-year license for the Power Authority to operate its first generating facility, the St. Lawrence-Franklin D. Roosevelt hydroelectric project in Massena. The action comes more than a week before the original license is due to expire.

October 23, 2005: Former NYPA President and Chief Operating Officer George T. Berry dies at 81 in Ancramdale, N.Y. Berry’s 21-year Authority career included nine years in the top staff position, a period in which NYPA completed several major generation and transmission projects.

October 25, 1982: Power Authority trustees vote to change the name of the Astoria 6 generating plant in Queens to the Charles Poletti Power Project, in honor of the only person to serve both as a New York State governor and a NYPA trustee.

October 26, 1981: The Power Authority commemorates its 50th anniversary with a program at the American Museum of Natural History’s Hayden Planetarium in New York City. Among the dignitaries are U.S. Senator Ernest Hollings of South Carolina and Dr. Story Musgrave, an astronaut and chief test pilot in the space shuttle program.

October 27, 1998: Gov. George E. Pataki announces that 81 businesses in New York State have agreed to extended power supply contracts with NYPA at reduced rates, helping to protect nearly 90,000 jobs.

October 28, 1985: The Power Authority hails issuance of a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit allowing NYPA’s Marcy-South transmission line to cross navigable waterways along its 207-mile route.

October 29, 1952: The International Joint Commission, a U.S.-Canadian agency, grants permits to the Power Authority and Ontario Hydro for construction of a hydroelectric power project on the St. Lawrence River.

October 30, 2000: Gov. George E. Pataki announces $220,000 in funding for microturbines at the Town of Lewiston’s wastewater treatment plant. The project will receive $120,000 from NYPA and $100,000 from the state’s portion of Petroleum Overcharge Restitution funds.

October 31, 1995: Power Authority trustees approve spending $2.7 million for the first phase of a refrigerator replacement program for one of NYPA’s largest customers, the New York City Housing Authority. The eight-year effort will ultimately replace 180,000 inefficient refrigerators with compact energy-saving units at a total investment of $72 million.

October 31, 2001: The Power Authority hand-delivers its application for a new license to operate its first hydroelectric facility, the St. Lawrence-Franklin D. Roosevelt Power Project, to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in Washington. The Commission issues a 50-year license to NYPA on Oct. 22, 2003.

October 31, 2005: The New York State Hydrogen Energy Roadmap is released, providing a survey of resources and a strategy for developing a hydrogen-based fuel economy for the state. The document was commissioned by NYPA, the Long Island Power Authority and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.

November 2, 1999: The Power Authority and Entergy Corp. of New Orleans announce they are entering into exclusive negotiations for the potential sale of NYPA’s Indian Point 3 and James A. FitzPatrick nuclear power plants to Entergy.

November 3, 1983: Chairman John S. Dyson announces that the Power Authority is studying possible construction of a transmission line between Westchester County and Long Island, with an underwater crossing of Long Island Sound. Construction of NYPA’s Sound Cable Project begins in May 1989, and the project is completed two years later.

November 4, 1985: NYPA announces that a computer program known as MALMS (Metropolitan Area Load Management System), developed to more-efficiently track energy use by more than 80 of NYPA’s government customers in New York City and Westchester County, has won an energy innovation award from the U.S. Department of Energy.

November 5, 1992: Mayor David N. Dinkins announces that New York City will lease 31 acres of city-owned land in College Point Corporate Park in Queens to The New York Times for a new printing and distribution facility. A promised allocation of low-cost NYPA power played a key role in keeping the paper from relocating these functions to New Jersey.

November 5, 1998: The Power Authority announces that U.S. Environmental Protection Agency tests have confirmed that only negligible emissions are resulting from operation of a 200-kilowatt fuel cell installed by NYPA at the Westchester County Wastewater Treatment Plant in Yonkers. The fuel cell is one of the first in the world to run on the gas produced in sewage treatment.

November 6, 1981: The Power Authority announces it is considering moving a portion of its headquarters staff from New York City to the White Plains area.

November 6, 1996: In its first venture onto the World Wide Web, the Power Authority unveils an Internet site focusing specifically on the relicensing process that has recently begun for its St. Lawrence-Franklin D. Roosevelt Power Project. The webpage includes information on power project operations, recreational facilities developed by NYPA and participants involved in the relicensing.

November 6, 2002: The Power Authority breaks ground for a 500-megawatt combined-cycle power plant at the site of its Charles Poletti Power Project in Queens. The new facility will begin commercial operation at the end of 2005 as one of the cleanest and most efficient power plants in New York City’s history.

November 6, 2003: A report by environmental consultants M. J. Bradley & Associates of Concord, Mass., finds that NYPA’s six small, clean power plants are the cleanest power sources in New York City, and that the units’ pending air-quality permits will be among the strictest in the nation for similar facilities.

November 7, 1979: Power Authority Chairman John S. Dyson tells cadets at the U.S. Military Academy that “the United States must regain control of its destiny by re-establishing its energy independence.” He says the recent seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran spotlights “the degree to which this country has been victimized by its dependence on imported oil.”

November 8, 1984: A two-day conference on “New York’s Electric Future,” co-sponsored by the Power Authority and Cornell University, opens in New York City. Speakers include U.S. Senator Robert Stafford of Vermont, former Energy and Defense Secretary Dr. James Schlesinger, economist Alfred Kahn and Professor Lawrence Klein of the University of Pennsylvania, a Nobel laureate.

November 9, 1965: The Power Authority’s Niagara and St. Lawrence hydroelectric projects continue to operate as a major blackout strikes the Northeastern United States and Canada. No damage is incurred by the Authority’s generating and transmission facilities, and normal service resumes on all lines as soon as the substations and related facilities of NYPA’s customers are operational.

November 10, 1958: NYPA trustees award a $35,000 contract to Thomas Hart Benton to paint a mural that will be displayed in the Power Vista, the visitors center at the Authority’s Niagara Power Project.

November 10, 2005: Timothy S. Carey, then NYPA’s chief operating officer, is honored at the U.S. Green Building Council’s annual conference for his contribution to sustainable design and green building construction guidelines. As president and chief executive officer of the Hugh L. Carey Battery Park City Authority, Carey had led construction of The Solaire, the nation’s first sustainable residential high-rise building.

November 11, 1934: The Power Authority’s trustees meet with President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the White House to present a report on distribution costs for electricity in New York State and elsewhere. A purpose of the report is to assist in the negotiation of contracts for distribution of power from a potential project on the St. Lawrence River.

November 12, 1976: NYPA trustees approve 28 proposed contracts for sale of electricity to public agencies and communities in Westchester County from the Indian Point 3 Nuclear Power Plant in Buchanan and the Astoria 6 plant in New York City. The contracts are subject to approval by Gov. Hugh L. Carey.

November 13, 1980: NYPA Chairman John S. Dyson announces that New York State consumers have saved more than one billion gallons of oil and about $100 million in just over two years thanks to Authority purchases of hydroelectric power from Quebec.

November 13, 1990: A team of American and Soviet scientists studying energy and environmental issues meets with NYPA Chairman Richard M. Flynn in Albany after touring the Niagara Power Project. In describing NYPA’s efforts to counter global warming, Flynn warns that free-market development in the former Soviet Union and growing industrialization in the Third World could lead to more greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere.

November 14, 2000: The Power Authority’s James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant resumes operation after a 38-day shutdown for refueling and maintenance, its shortest to that point. The plant’s sale to Entergy Corp. of New Orleans will be completed one week later.

November 15, 1983: The Power Authority and Ontario Hydro mark completion of a new 345-kilovolt transmission line between NYPA’s Niagara Power Project and the Sir Adam Beck hydroelectric complex in Queenston, Ontario.

November 17, 1981: Power Authority trustees approve filing of an application for a federal license to build a small hydroelectric project at Hinckley Reservoir, north of Utica. The project, named for Gregory B. Jarvis, an astronaut who grew up in the area and died in the Challenger space shuttle tragedy, will begin operation in 1986.

November 18, 1968: Power Authority trustees accept assignment of Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. contracts with General Electric Co. for major components that will be used in NYPA’s James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant.

November 19, 1982: The Power Authority applies to the state Public Service Commission for a permit to build a 345-kilovolt transmission line from Marcy, near Utica, to East Fishkill in Dutchess County. The 207-mile Marcy-South line will be completed in 1988.

November 19, 2001: The New York/New Jersey Minority Purchasing Council names the Power Authority as a recipient of its prestigious Chairpersons of the Year award for 2001 for NYPA’s service in furthering the cause of minority business development.

November 20, 1989: The Power Authority releases the results of a statewide survey showing that while 75 percent of respondents say they have heard of the “greenhouse effect,” only 41 percent connect it with global warming.

November 20, 1993: Richard M. Flynn announces his resignation as Power Authority chairman and chief executive officer after nearly 8½ years in that position and 18 as a NYPA trustee.

November 20, 1995: The Power Authority, Metro-North Railroad and IBM introduce an electric station car program. A group of commuters traveling from New York City to IBM’s Hawthorne and Yorktown Heights facilities will carpool from the North White Plains station using electric vehicles parked at charging stations there, completing an all-electric trip to work.

November 21, 2000: NYPA and Entergy Corp. of New Orleans conclude the sale of the Authority’s Indian Point 3 and James A. FitzPatrick nuclear power plants to Entergy for $967 million, then a record for the U.S. nuclear power industry. The last of the documents are signed at 11:38 a.m., with the sale taking effect at noon.

November 22, 2000: NYPA announces it has selected five sites—in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens—for small, clean power plants it will build to meet rapidly increasing electricity needs in New York City. The Authority says it is considering a site on Staten Island and that it plans to install an additional plant in Brentwood, L.I.

November 24, 1982: Dedication ceremonies are held at the Ashokan Hydropower Project, the first in a series of small hydroelectric facilities NYPA will develop to reduce New York State’s dependence on foreign oil. The 4,750-kilowatt Ashokan project is NYPA’s first new baseload hydropower generator since its Niagara project began operation in 1961.

November 24, 1991: Dr. Story Musgrave, a mission specialist aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis, takes 400-million-year-old fossils from NYPA’s Blenheim-Gilboa Pumped Storage Power Project on his 10-day trip into space.

November 24, 2004: Gov. George E. Pataki announces a landmark agreement under which the Power Authority will join Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. and the villages of Lake Placid and Tupper Lake in a multi-faceted program to resolve power-service problems in the Tri-Lakes region of the Adirondacks. Highlights include construction of a 46-kilovolt transmission line and efforts to expand energy efficiency programs and promote use of clean energy technologies in the villages.

November 26, 1974: Power Authority trustees approve a General Purpose Bond Resolution that will govern issuance of all NYPA bonds until it is replaced by a new resolution in February 1998. The trustees also authorize acquisition of the partially complete Astoria 6 generating plant in Queens from Con Edison, subject to approval of State Comptroller Arthur Levitt.

November 26, 1991: The Power Authority sells 25 acres to the City of Niagara Falls for construction of a new drinking water treatment plant. The sale is part of an effort by NYPA to return surplus parcels from its Niagara Power Project to the tax rolls.

November 28, 1989: NYPA trustees approve an agreement with the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) concerning technical and management services NYPA will provide in decommissioning the Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant, which LIPA had purchased from the Long Island Lighting Company for $1 earlier that year.

November 29, 1989: NYPA trustees authorize Voith Hydro Inc. of York, Pa., to produce a prototype turbine at a cost of $3.2 million for an upgrade at the Niagara Power Project. The program, including replacement of all 13 turbines at the project’s Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant, is scheduled for completion by the end of 2006.

November 29, 2000: Timothy S. Carey of Montrose is confirmed by the State Senate as a Power Authority trustee, succeeding Hyman M. Miller of Fayetteville, who resigned after more than 10 years of service. Gov. George E. Pataki had named Carey, the president and chief executive officer of the Hugh L. Carey Battery Park City Authority, to the NYPA post.

November 30, 1992: Gov. Mario M. Cuomo announces that the villages of Arcade and Penn Yan are the first two communities to receive power under NYPA’s economic development power program for municipal electric systems.

December 1, 1954: The Power Authority issues its first bonds, totaling $335 million at 3.18 percent interest. Proceeds will be used to finance construction of the Authority’s first generating facility, the St. Lawrence project.

December 1, 1978: NYPA begins service to the Village of Green Island municipal system in Albany County, marking the first time the Authority is supplying electricity to all of the state’s municipal electric systems and rural cooperatives. NYPA Chairman Frederick R. Clark and Mayor Michael R. McNulty take part in ceremonies in the village.

December 1, 1999: NYPA Chairman C.D. “Rapp” Rappleyea signs an agreement formally transferring responsibility for coordinating power flows in New York from the state’s Power Pool to a new Independent System Operator. Rappleyea participates in ceremonies in the Town of Guilderland, near Albany, as chairman of the Pool’s Executive Committee.

December 3, 1990: The Giulio Verne, a cable-laying ship owned by the Pirelli Cable Corp. of Naples, Italy, begins installing a portion of NYPA’s 345-kilovolt Sound Cable along the floor of Long Island Sound. The 26.3-mile underground and underwater transmission line from Westchester County to Long Island will be completed in 1991.

December 4, 2001: The Power Authority unveils plans for a $23 million emission-offset program in the four New York City boroughs where its small, clean power plants are being built. Program highlights will include installation of fuel cells at eight wastewater treatment plants and of pollution-control devices on more than 1,400 public school buses.

December 5, 1988: Former Gov. Malcolm Wilson joins NYPA officials in dedicating a new training center at the Indian Point 3 Nuclear Power Plant in memory of the late Theodore Hill Jr. Hill, a lifetime resident of the Town of Yorktown, Westchester County, who served as a NYPA trustee from 1960 to 1969 and was vice chairman for seven years, died in 1987.

December 6, 2005: Gov. George E. Pataki announces that NYPA, the City of Buffalo and Erie County have reached an agreement in principle for the city and county to support NYPA’s application for a new Niagara project license. Highlights include NYPA payments throughout the license term for revitalization of the Buffalo waterfront and development of the Erie County portion of a Niagara River Greenway.

December 7, 2000: NYPA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer C.D. “Rapp” Rappleyea announces he will retire, effective Jan. 31, 2001.

December 9, 1992: Chairman Richard M. Flynn accepts a plaque from the U.S. Department of Energy recognizing NYPA’s High Efficiency Lighting Program for public facilities.

December 10, 1987: The Power Authority’s new icebreaker on the Niagara River is dedicated as the Latham in honor of the late William H. Latham, a major figure in construction of the St. Lawrence and Niagara hydroelectric projects. NYPA Trustee Rolland E. Kidder of Jamestown, presiding at the event, terms Latham, who died earlier in the year, “an outstanding engineer and a fine leader.”

December 12, 1974: The Power Authority signs a contract for purchase of Con Edison’s partially completed Astoria 6 oil-fueled power plant in Queens. The plant, transferred to the Authority the next day, will begin commercial operation in 1977. In 1982, it will be renamed for Charles Poletti, former governor and NYPA trustee.

December 13, 1990: Chairman Richard M. Flynn announces that NYPA has been selected by the Long Island Lighting Co. in a competitive bidding process to build a natural-gas-fueled power plant in Holtsville, Suffolk County. The plant will begin operation in May 1994 and will be named for Flynn.

December 14, 1994: President and Chief Executive Officer S. David Freeman and Long Island officials announce extension of NYPA’s High Efficiency Lighting Program (HELP) to county and local governments on the Island. The announcement marks the start of a program to offer HELP to public facilities throughout the state.

December 15, 1967: An 18-member committee appointed by Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller to assess New York State’s power needs recommends that the Power Authority be permitted to build pumped storage projects and nuclear power plants.

December 15, 1998: Power Authority trustees approve conveyance of 56 acres on Wilson Hill to the Town of Louisville for a residential subdivision, representing the first action in what will become a program to return land at the St. Lawrence-Franklin D. Roosevelt project to local municipalities and adjoining landowners.

December 16, 1997: NYPA approves proposed agreements with the state’s seven investor-owned utilities for the delivery of low-cost electricity supplied by the Authority under the new Power for Jobs program. The agreements are subject to approval by Gov. George E. Pataki.

December 17, 1971: The Power Authority announces the retirement of William H. Latham as its top staff official at the Niagara Power Project and the appointment of Eugene L. Gochnauer to succeed him. Latham was the Authority’s ranking on-site official at the start of construction of the St. Lawrence project and throughout construction of Niagara.

December 17, 1976: Power Authority Chairman James A. FitzPatrick tells a state Assembly committee that legislative intent is being thwarted by regulatory delays in licensing needed power plants. He says no new plants have been approved since the Legislature in 1972 enacted a bill to speed the licensing process.

December 18, 1979: Power Authority Chairman John S. Dyson calls on legislators from all 50 states and federal energy officials at a national energy forum in Denver to take action to combat the “deadly threat to our basic liberties and security” posed by dependence on foreign oil.

December 18, 2000: Following a successful demonstration project sponsored by NYPA, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York City announces it will buy 200 hybrid-electric transit buses from Orion Bus Industries in Oriskany, Oneida County. The $77 million order is the largest of its kind in North America.

December 19, 1980: Power Authority trustees approve construction of a second new 345-kilovolt transmission line between NYPA’s Niagara Power Project and Ontario Hydro’s Sir Adam Beck complex. The trustees had authorized the first line the previous June.

December 19, 1991: The Electric Power Research Institute presents NYPA with a national award for innovative engineering in recognition of the use of a new type of insulation in the underground portion of the Authority’s Sound Cable Project from Westchester County to Long Island. The insulation lowered construction costs for the project and will permit increased power flows.

December 20, 2005: The Power Authority makes initial payments totaling $8 million to local governments and school districts as part of agreements concerning relicensing of the Niagara Power Project. The entities will receive annual payments and allocations of low-cost power from the project after issuance of a new federal license.

December 22, 1978: The Power Authority’s 765-kilovolt transmission line from the Quebec border to Central New York is fully energized as electricity flows for the first time on a 134-mile stretch from Massena to Marcy, near Utica. A 21-mile segment from the border to Massena had operated previously.

December 22, 1979: Marking the first anniversary of full energization of the Authority’s 765-kilovolt transmission line, Chairman John S. Dyson says hydroelectric power carried from Quebec on the line has saved New York consumers more than $50 million and reduced the state’s oil use by more than 13 million barrels.

December 26, 2000: North Central Bronx Hospital becomes one of the first medical facilities in the United States to generate electricity from a fuel cell power plant. The new 200-kilowatt installation is the third in a series of fuel cells installed by NYPA.

December 27, 1978: The appointment of Joseph R. Schmieder as the Power Authority’s chief engineer is announced by Chairman Frederick R. Clark. George T. Berry, previously general manager and chief engineer, will continue to serve as the Authority’s top staff official, with the title of executive director.

December 28, 1973: In the face of a Middle East oil embargo, the Power Authority asks its 42 municipal system and rural cooperative customers in New York State to reduce voltage on their systems by 3 percent to save electricity. Although the Authority at this time uses no oil, the action is taken in concert with statewide voltage reduction measures.

December 29, 1986: NYPA announces that five of its generating facilities—Niagara, St. Lawrence-FDR, FitzPatrick, Ashokan and Kensico—have set annual production records, helping the Power Authority provide New York State with more than 45.5 billion kilowatt-hours (kwh) of electricity. More than 37 billion kwh were produced at NYPA projects, with the remainder purchased from other sources, principally Hydro-Quebec.

December 29, 1987: A low-interest loan to cassette tape manufacturer Michele Audio Corp. of Massena is the first award made from a new $1 million economic development fund established by NYPA to spark investment in St. Lawrence County.

December 31, 1962: Robert Moses retires as Power Authority chairman. During his tenure of nearly eight years and 10 months, Moses led the struggle to win designation for the Authority to build the Niagara Power Project and presided over the massive construction efforts on the St. Lawrence River and at Niagara.

December 31, 1968: The Power Authority applies to the federal Atomic Energy Commission for permission to build a nuclear power plant on the shore of Lake Ontario in the Town of Scriba, near Oswego.

December 31, 1975: The Power Authority purchases the partially completed Indian Point 3 Nuclear Power Plant in the Village of Buchanan, Westchester County, from Con Edison. The plant will begin commercial operation the following year.

December 31, 1985: The Power Authority’s small hydropower plant at Hinckley Dam and Reservoir, in Herkimer and Oneida counties, produces first power.

December 31, 2005: NYPA begins commercial operation of a 500-megawatt combined-cycle power plant at the site of its Poletti project in Astoria, Queens. The new plant, fueled mainly by natural gas, is one of the cleanest and most efficient in New York City history.