Bigger share of power pie for WNY?

LEWISTON, N.Y. (WIVB) - Tuesday, the head of the New York Power Authority paid a visit to western New York, talking about the advantages of green energy.

But will local customers or communities actually reap any financial rewards?

One of the biggest green energy projects in the country is already here, the hydroelectric plant at Niagara Falls,  but we're missing out on many of it's benefits.

Now, the New York Power Authority is moving ahead to harness wind energy and is promising, western New York won't get blown away, this time.

The New York Power Authority's Chief Executive Officer Richard Kessel is making sure he covers all his bases, with estimates a wind power initiative could create a multi-billion dollar industry in western New York.

Kessel said, "And I see no reason why western New York cannot be the hub for wind manufacturing, component manufacturing."

And Kessel is covering all the bases, meeting with environmentalists, and local elected officials to get the job done. So far, more than a dozen companies from around the country have formally shown an interest in developing offshore wind power.

Dave Bradley of the Wind Action Group said, "There are hundreds of thousands of jobs that could be created, as well as jobs servicing the people who would be actually manufacturing these things."

And Richard Kessel is promising to give every consideration to fill the wind power jobs to western New Yorkers.

But Congressman Brian Higgins says western New York could generate thousands of new jobs on its own, if the Power Authority would share more of it's profits from right here, the Niagara Power Project.

Higgins said, "The New York Power Authority has been pulling those profits outside of western New York for 50 years, and we are going to get them back. We are going to get them back to create jobs, and fundamentally change the economic landscape of Buffalo and western New York."

Kessel responds, the Governor wants a report on the issue of sharing more of the Power Authority's profits with western New York, and he concedes that things need to change.

Kessel said, "The New York Power Authority needs to do more for western New York on economic development."

The Power Authority is setting an initial goal of 40 wind turbines to generate about 120 megawatts of electricity.

But sport fishing, which is big business, has something to say about navigating all those turbines in some of the most fertile fishing waters in North America.