John Hall: “I just want to point out, in response to a couple of remarks that were made, this project that Mr. Arcuri, Mr. Hinchey…”

“I just want to point out, in response to a couple of remarks that were made, this project that Mr. Arcuri, Mr. Hinchey, and I are concerned with, which could happen anywhere in the country to any of you, is not an interstate project. It occurs entirely within New York State, mysteriously starting in Utica and mysteriously ending in the little town of Campbell Hall. The other shoes have not dropped yet. But in New York State's Environmental Quality Review Act, nothing gets approved in under a year. The proposal in section 1221 that after a year it kicks up authority to FERC is patently meant to usurp State authority. You can't get a subdivision, a power plant, a landfill, hardly any public project approved that fast. It usually takes a draft environmental impact statement; public comment; a final environmental impact statement; and at long last, approval. But two years is the shortest that I have ever seen. So to have this be one year means to me that the law was written to usurp State authority.”