CHENANGO COUNTY – New York Regional Interconnect refers to the path along the Marcy railroad track as a no-man’s land, but a closer look reveals that vast expanses of land are actually home to not only thousands of families and farms, but to thousands of cows that produce millions-of-dollars worth of milk and meat products for New York City.

“There’s ‘nothing’ there,” is a sentiment we’ve heard echoed repeatedly from New York Regional Interconnect executives as justification for running a mega 400-kilovolt DC power line through the bucolic towns and farms of Central New York. Its purpose would be to deliver additional energy to the people of New York City.

Ironically, those very same urban dwellers rely on farms along NYRI’s proposed path of “nothings” for their liquid milk and milk-related products (i.e., butter, cheese), as well as for beef and pork.