Schumer: As President Spoke, New York Companies Were Listening

In last nights State of the Union, the President addressed the need for alternative energy technologies, and today, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer urged the Administration to look at dozens of energy technology companies in New York, like those that comprise New Energy New York (NENY), are already on the cutting edge of research. In a letter to the U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman, Schumer lobbied the Administration to look at New York companies when deciding grants and federal programs.

New York State has been a worldwide leader in energy technology, from the time Thomas Edison chose Schenectady to be the location of General Electric, right up to todays cutting edge development of fuel cells, superconductivity, and modern innovations in wind and hydro power. Dozens of New York companies have made the commitment to new energy, and now it is the federal governments turn to make the investment. We must now launch a full court press to ensure the Administration knows the progress New York companies have made, to make sure we remain at the forefront of New Energy, Schumer said.

New York companies at the cutting edge of new technology include: GE Global Research (Niskayuna) one of the world's largest and most diversified industrial labs, provides leadership technology and innovation to all the GE businesses, GM Fuel Cell Division (Honeoye Falls) has hydrogen fuel cell research and development facilities to produce a concept vehicle that captures the vision and potential of hydrogen fuel cell technology, Plug Powers (Albany) fuel cell technology is working to enhance product performance, reduce costs, improve manufacturing and integration processes, and continuing to build key customer and partner relationships and is striving to meet longerterm objectives, MTI Micro Fuel Cell (Albany) has assembled a worldclass team of researchers and scientists, a proprietary direct methanol fuel cell, and significant related intellectual property, DayStar (Halfmoon) is an emerging leader in low cost, high efficiency Photovoltaic Foil that converts sunlight into energy, SuperPower (Schenectady) is a world leader in the development of superconductive materials. Additional companies include, KeySpan, Blasch Precision Ceramics, AWS Truewind, Albany Engineering, AlbanyNanoTech, Alfred University, Cornell Fuel cell Institute, and Rochester Institute of Technology.

NENY is a consortium of New York energyrelated technology organizations convened to expand and promote energy technology excellence in New York State. Formation of the Task Force is the direct result of a forum hosted by Senator Schumer, in December of 2002, to look at ways the state's hightech companies could interact to address energyrelated technology issues. In FY04, Schumer secured $50,000 in seed money for NENY, and has also successfully fought for millions of dollars for individual companies including GE Fuel Cell, Plug and Superpower. The idea behind creating a formal consortium of companies to pursue common technology initiatives is to bring attention to the area's leadership on cleanenergy resources, and in addition provide benefits to each of the members through cooperation and coordination of marketing initiatives.