New York State Evergy Information
New York State's energy resoures are as varied as the state itself. Here is a brief overview of the States energy soures including its two main ones: Petrolium and Natural Gas.
New York has minor oil and gas reserves located mainly in the far western part of the State near Lake Erie. Although New York’s fossil fuel resources are limited, New York State possesses considerable renewable energy potential. Several large rivers, starting with the Niagara and the Hudson, provide New York with some of the greatest hydropower resources in the United States. In addition, New York’s Catskill and Adirondack mountains offer substantial wind power potential. Also, parts of New York are densely forested, allowing for potential fuelwood harvesting.
Petrolium
New York State's petroleum products are provided by refineries in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, the Colonial Pipeline system from the Gulf Coast, and foreign imports that principally originate in Canada, the Caribbean, South America, North Africa, and Europe. Located in both New York and New Jersey, the New York Harbor area has a petroleum bulk terminal storage capacity of over 75 million barrels, which makes it by far the largest and most important petroleum product hub in the high-demand Northeast.
New York, along with much of the Northeast, is vulnerable to distillate fuel oil shortages and price spikes during the winter months due to high demand for home heating. One-third of the State's households use fuel oil as their primary energy source for home heating. In January and February 2000, distillate fuel oil prices in the Northeast rose sharply when extremly cold winter weather increased demand unexpectedly and hindered the arrival of new supply. Frozen rivers and high winds slowed the docking and unloading of barges and tankers causing a severe shortage. In July 2000 the President directed the U.S. Department of Energy to establish the Northeast Heating Oil Reserve, in order to reduce the risk of future shortages. The Reserve gives Northeast consumers adequate supplies for about 10 days, the time required for ships to carry heating oil from the Gulf of Mexico to New York Harbor. The Reserve's storage terminals are located at Perth Amboy, New Jersey, and Groton and New Haven, Connecticut.
Natural Gas
Although western New York produces a small amount of natural gas, the vast majority of New York’s natural gas supply is brought in via pipeline from other States and across the Canadan boarder. The Transcontinental and Tennessee Gas Transmission pipelines from the Gulf Coast and the Iroquois pipeline from Canada link up with local gas distribution networks that supply the New York City metropolitan area and Long Island. Numerous other gas transmission systems branch in from Pennsylvania and Canada to feed other parts of the State.
New York has moderate natural gas storage capacity, developed principally from depleted natural gas fields in the Appalachian Basin in western New York. These storage sites, along with those in neighboring states, are important for supplying the Northeast region, particularly during the winter season when demand is at its highest. New York’s residential, commercial, and electric power sectors all consume huge amounts of natural gas. To meet New York ’s growing demand for natural gas, particularly for electric power generation, an offshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal with a capacity of 2 billion cubic feet per day has been proposed in Federal waters on the Outer Continental Shelf just south of Long island, 25 miles away from New York Harbor.