Northport Power Station

The Northport Power Station is a natural gas and conventional oil electric power generating station located on the north shore of Long Island, at Waterside Avenue & Eatons Neck Road in Northport, New York.[1] The facility was built by the Long Island Lighting Company (LILCO) in 1967.[2] In August 2007 the Northport Power Station became part of National Grid USA as part of their purchase of KeySpan Energy.[3][4] The plant's electric output is distributed via Long Island Power Authority (LIPA).[4]

Northport Power Station
View of Northport Smoke Stacks
CountryUnited States
LocationNorthport, New York
Coordinates40°55′22″N 73°20′34″W
StatusOperational
Construction began1967 (1967)
Operator(s)National Grid USA
Power generation
Nameplate capacity1,500 MW

The four enormous smoke stacks are a defining landmark of Northport and can be seen from up to 36 miles away atop East Rock in New Haven, Connecticut, across Long Island Sound. Each stack is 600 feet (180 m) tall.[2][5]

The value of the plant is disputed. In 2010, National Grid filed a lawsuit against the Town of Huntington to challenge the amount of money in property taxes it was paying for the power station each year, which was $80 million, the most taxed building in the United States.[6] In September 2020, a settlement was reached, with the Town of Huntington approving a tax reduction on the building, bring the cost of property taxes on the building down to $46 million from $86 million over seven years.[7]

Age and pollution

In 2005, a coalition of New York environmental groups issued a report which named the Northport Power Station as the number one polluting plant on Long Island and the second most polluting plant in the Northeast. The plant outputs 5.2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide every year.[8] The reason for these concerns primarily lay with the age of the power plant. The plant was constructed in the 1960s and 1970s. When Unit-4 was completed in 1977[5] it was among the last conventional oil fired-units built in the United States.[2] The plant is exempt from Clean Air Act emissions standards because it was grandfathered in when the law was passed.[9]

As a result of pollution and health concerns, United States Senator Charles E. Schumer and Suffolk County Legislator Jon Cooper have been calling for modernizing the inefficient Northport Power Station.[9][10]

The Northport Power Station has undergone a gradual decline in its annual energy production, from 55.8 percent of plant capacity in 2005 to 15.2 percent last year (2019). That decline is expected to continue to 2.9 percent of plant capacity by 2035.[11]

Tax settlement

In 2010, LIPA teamed with National Grid to file a lawsuit against the Town of Huntington alleging that the building was too overvalued and that National Grid was paying too much taxes on the building. The judges ruled that LIPA did not have the right to be a plaintiff in the case because the building was owned by National Grid, affirmative to a later 2015 New York Supreme Court appeal, which had the same outcome. LIPA continued the legal battle however, and the Town of Huntington attorney Nicholas Ciappetta agreed resolve the dispute through mediation to begin a trial. The lawsuit has sparked protests among residents of Huntington, with concerns of property taxes and school taxes rising.[12] A settlement was reached, with the Town Council voting 4-1 for reduced taxes and the Northport School District Board of Education accepting it. The will lower LIPA's property taxes on the Power Station from $86 million to $46 million over the course of seven years. In turn, LIPA will have to pay $14.5 million to the school district each year and $3 million to the town.[13]

References
  1. "ENB Region 1 Completed Applications 17 October 2007". Department of Environmental Consvervation. Retrieved 2007-12-04.
  2. "Gas- and Oil-Fired Plants in New York". Power Plants Around The World. May 24, 2006. Archived from the original on July 18, 2009. Retrieved 2007-12-04.
  3. "KeySpan is now National Grid". National Grid USA. Retrieved 2008-05-29.
  4. "National Grid / KeySpan Announce Management Agreement With LIPA". National Grid USA. Retrieved 2008-05-29.
  5. "Structure Diagrams". Skyscraper Source Media. Retrieved 2007-12-13.
  6. "https://www.statista.com/statistics/945549/highest-property-taxes-usa/". External link in |title= (help)
  7. Harrington, Mark. "Huntington Town Board votes 4-1 to approve LIPA tax settlement". Newsday.
  8. "Northport's Dirty Burden". The New York Times. 2005-08-21. Retrieved 2007-12-04.
  9. "Schumer Calls For Modernization Of Northport, Port Jefferson Power Plants; Long Island Among Worst In Nation For Smog And Ozone Levels" (Press release). United States Congress (via Charles E. Schumer). 2005-08-09. Retrieved 2007-12-04.
  10. "Suffolk Legislature Urges Cleanup of Northport Power Station" (Press release). Suffolk County Legislator (via Jon Cooper). 2005-09-25. Retrieved 2007-12-04.
  11. May 22, Gordian Raacke 459 60sc on; 2020. "State-Mandated Study Finds Retiring Portion of Northport Power Station in 2022 Will Save LIPA Customers $300 Million". Renewable Energy Long Island. Retrieved 2020-12-15.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  12. "https://tbrnewsmedia.com/tag/northport-power-plant/". TBR News Media. External link in |title= (help); Missing or empty |url= (help)
  13. Harrington, Mark. "Northport school district, LIPA reach deal over power plant taxes". Newsday.com.

See also
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