Tropical storm Isias left many in the Hudson Valley without electricity for days. Several legislators have since responded to the storm.

U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer quickly reached out to electric companies in the Hudson Valley to demand answers on what was being done to address the outages. Senators James Skoufis (D-Hudson Valley) and Jen Metzger (D-Rosendale) followed up in the aftermath and demanded that residents be reimbursed for damages and losses.

Now Assembly member Jonathan G. Jacobsen (D-Newburgh) is calling for a feasibility study on burying transmission lines and has introduced legislation to have the Public Service Commission involved.

“How many times do we have to live through this nightmare with wind and rainstorms in the summer and fall and blizzards in the winter,” said Jacobson. “The cost of burying power lines pales to the inconvenience and costs to individuals and businesses every time there is a major storm.”

More than 115,000 customers lost power due to the storm with 57 percent of the customers in the City of Newburgh and 35 percent in the Town of Newburgh.

Jacobson said, “the response has been quite positive from both constituents and other State legislators around the State.”

“We’re a big nation, and it would cost a lot, but this sort of basic infrastructure work has been standard in other countries for decades,” said Newburgh resident Tamsin Hollo. “With the climate crisis promising ever-worsening weather (tornadoes in Ulster and Dutchess Counties today - again!), I think it’s high time we upgraded our transmission lines and put them underground.”

However, other residents were concerned regarding the cost.

“They can’t afford to pick up recycles, forget burying wires,” said resident Chris Edgar.

The legislation Jacobson is proposing would determine how much the cost would be of burying all or most of the transmission lines in New York State.

“This way we would find out what the cost is, how long it would take, how you would spread [the cost] among the customers,” said Jacobson. “We’re also going to find out how much the utility companies have been spending each year after storms. I believe once we get all the facts out there, we’ll be able to move forward.”

Senator Leroy Comrie (D-Albany) is sponsoring the bill.

The legislation will be brought to the next legislative session in January 2021. If the bill passes, the Public Service Commission will have six months to complete the study with a full report.