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Long Island Power Authority Issues RFP for Major Fuel Cell Installation

During the past few years the Long Island Power Authority has been quietly testing out fuel cell technology by installing boxy, beige fuel units at local hospitals, universities, town halls and even a McDonald’s in North Babylon to supply supplementary power. Yesterday [01/02/05] LIPA issued a request for proposals for what company officials say would be the biggest fuel cell generation project in the country: a 10-megawatt facility in West Babylon that could provide enough electricity to power 10,000 homes. “We’ve been evaluating the technology for some years, and now we want to take it to the next level,” LIPA chairman Richard Kessel said at a news conference yesterday with town officials at Babylon Town Hall in front of a 5-kilowatt fuel cell that has provided the building with supplementary electricity and hot water since 2002. The plant would be built at LIPA’s West Babylon substation – where the power authority previously set up a 75-cell pilot project that fed electricity directly into the grid – and is slated to be up and running by next summer. LIPA officials said the fuel cell facility, along with other wind and solar power projects, will help Long Island meet Gov. George Pataki’s […]

Senate Commerce Committee Expands with Climate, Oceans, Disaster Panels

The Senate Commerce Committee formally approved a new subcommittee structure yesterday, creating a new climate change panel, an oceans subcommittee, and a disaster prevention and prediction body. All Republican members of the full committee with the exception of Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and former Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) will chair a subcommittee. McCain was said to be interested in heading up the climate change panel but chose to take the reins of an Armed Services subcommittee instead, making him ineligible to chair a Commerce subcommittee under Republican rules, according to Committee spokeswoman Melanie Alvord. She said members are “in the process” of choosing subcommittee assignments. Stevens proposed the new subcommittees in early January. The climate change subcommittee will be the first solely dedicated to the politically contentious topic in either chamber. Its creation signals a shift in the way the committee treats the issue compared to the 108th Congress, when McCain used the full committee platform to push his effort to establish a cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Andy Davis, spokesman for committee ranking member Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), said the new subcommittee does not necessarily indicate that global warming will receive less attention by members. “You can make […]