Tagged: innovation trail

Environmental advocates were in Albany Monday making the case that investing in the state's natural resources is good economic sense.

With Kodak embarking on a restructuring effort under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the future of the imaging icon remains unclear.

But one aspect of Kodak's legacy is already deeply imprinted onto the Rochester community.

Even as Rochester's most famous company struggled mightily to reinvent itself, the Rochester region steadily fought back - leading the state in job growth in recent years and outpacing its upstate peers in economic vitality.

One key reason: A long history of top-notch human capital flung into the community - willingly or not - as Kodak's fortunes withered.

As Governor Andrew Cuomo unveiled his 2012 budget proposal in Albany, he talked a lot about what he calls "entrepreneurial government" - a model in which the state sets the stage for private investment.

The question now is whether that private money will materialize:

In part one of our series on Canadian power, we brought you a first story on the hydroelectricity New York imports from Canada. Today, we visit the site of a proposed plan that might send more power our way from the Canadian province of Newfoundland & Labrador. Innovation Trail reporter Emma Jacobs says the dam could bring jobs and renewable energy but also bring costs.

New York imports hydroelectricity generated by giant dams on Canadian rivers. And some would like to see the state get more of that renewable power. But as Emma Jacobs reports in the first story of our series on New York's imports of Canadian power, there's also opposition to that idea.

We're drilling for gas, planning pipes from Canadian tar sands, and pumping millions of dollars into green energy projects.  

But the energy mix that we'll end up with in New York State is still a work in progress. What do we want to see powering our toasters and laptops in the years to come?

We've posed those questions to a panel of experts, to find out what's being built, how the marketplace might shake out, and what the social and political ramifications are of how we produce and consume power.

WRVO News and the Innovation Trail hosted an hour-long discussion about energy and where it comes from. "Innovation Conversation: Following the Power Lines" is airing on Innovation Trail partner stations in December.  

The Department of Environmental Conservation begins holding hearings on the rules that would govern hydrofracking this week. New Yorkers have watched closely as fracking has unfolded in Pennsylvania and some are wary that environmental abuses could happen here ¿ while others are eager for the economic boom drilling could bring. The Innovation Trail's Matt Richmond reports.

Libby Foust lives on a quiet gravel road outside Ithaca, in a farmhouse with a 360 degree view of green hills, woods and grain silos.

She moved her family here from a farm in Troy, Pennsylvania.

"Just a very small, quaint town, had not much to offer except local people with local jobs, lot of farming."

Earlier this week, the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) released an updated version of its fracking regulations for its watershed. 

The commission oversees an area that covers four states - New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware - and provides water to more than 15 million Americans, including New York City.

But a top official in one of those states says he won't play ball on the draft regulations.