The pending trade war between the United States and Canada should not affect the Jamestown Board of Public Utilities.
WRFA contacted Jamestown Board of Public Utilities General Manager David Leathers about whether the 25% tariffs on Canada that President Donald Trump has signed could impact the local municipal utility. Leathers replied that they don’t anticipate “any immediate, direct impacts to our electric rates or our operations. We’ll have to see how all of this plays out over the next several days and possibly weeks.” The BPU receives a hydropower allocation from the Niagara Falls facility but none of that allocation comes from Canada.
Leathers added that there may be Canadian hydropower that is normally provided to the New York power grid that could be curtailed, so the “general market price of electricity in the NYISO (New York Independent Systems Operator) may increase some.” He said if this happens, the BPU may need to generate power using the LM6000 gas turbine to protect incremental load needs.
So now it starts–cutting off our noses to spite our faces. I thought Mr. “I can fix anything” was supposed to be bringing prices down, not driving them up. But hey, the Libs got “owned”, so I guess it’s worth it. Time will tell.