New York Democrat Samuels Opposes Storm King Project

The frontrunning Democratic gubernatorial candidate in New York filed a petition Monday with the Federal Power Commission urging it to immediately halt construction of a controversial electric generating plant at Storm King mountain.

Howard J. Samuels, former head of New York City's Off-Track Betting Corporation, said that whether he would stop the plant as governor "depends on how far it's gotten along and on my legal responsibilities."

But Samuels offered a "personal view" that if he becomes governor next January "Storm King won't be built."

In order to build the $1 billion pumped-storage installation, Consolidated Edison, the New York utility, must take over 300 acres of the Harvard-owned Black Rock forest.

The University has said that it will not sell the land unless Con Ed confronts it with a credible threat of legal action to take the land be emminent domain.

Daniel Steiner '54, general counsel to the University, reaffirmed that position Monday and said that for the University to change it on the basis of the Samuels's action "would be highly speculative at this point with the election five months off."

But Samuels's apparent opposition to the completition of the plant raises the possibility that Harvard could sell its land to Con Ed in the next few months and then see the plant stopped by a new Samuels administration next January.

Observers give Samuels an excellent chance to win a September 10 primary, and he would be rated a strong opponent for incumbent Republican Governor Malcolm Wilson.

Steiner said that Con Ed's ability to pose a substantial legal threat to Harvard depends on the utility's success in freeing itself from other legal entanglements concerning the plant.

Although construction has begun on a water tunnel for the plant, a United States Court of Appeals last month ordered the Federal Power Commission to re-open licensing hearings on the grounds that the plant's effect on aquatic life in the river had not been adequately considered. The Commission has held hearings on two previous occasions and has twice issued construction licenses, most recently in 1970.

Samuels's petition asks reconsideration of the plant because shortages of oil have made a generating facility designed only to handle peak power loads economically unviable.

It is unclear whether New York State still has the power to halt the plant. The state's Public Service Commission has approved the plant's construction and both Samuels and Steiner agreed that the federal government has jurisdiction, but they said that a reversal of the state agency's approval would impose complicated legal problems on the plant's future.

Samuels said he "would love it if Harvard delayed selling the land."