The recent announcement by Consolidated Edison, the New York power utility, that it plans to break ground for its controversial Storm King Power project by November has pleased few people outside the company. For Harvard, it is bringing on a slight case of schizophrenia.
The University has looked upon the controversy as something that someone else will fight for so long that it may soon have to make a decision for itself. And the Administration realizes that no matter what decision it makes--to sell the part of Harvard's Black Rock Forest needed by Con Ed, to fight the project, or not to decide at all--it will make enemies somewhere.
Daniel Steiner '54, general counsel to the University, has insisted repeatedly that "no decision is imminent." But it seems doubtful that Con Ed will break ground without assurances from Harvard that the needed land will be sold.
For the time being, the University is favoring no side at all. Steiner said last week that he has found no data to support the contention that the acreage desired by Con Ed "is in any way essential to the forest--it's not as if 50 per cent is going to be taken."
Responsibilities
He noted, however, that the University has primary responsibility "to be true to the [Stillman] trust."
Steiner said that "we may have no options at all. I think--but I'm not certain--that they could take it by eminent domain."
New York attorneys verified that the necessary 240 acres could be condemned in much the same manner as the home of a recalcitrant land owner on a freeway route.
However, environmental sources doubted that condemnation would occur. "I don't think Con Ed would go that far," one source said. "It would make them look like real ogres in the eyes of the public, and could only be a last resort."
Harvard is consulting its attorneys in New York, seeking "reasoned legal opinion" on eminant domain, Steiner said.
The University may choose to do nothing, forcing Con Ed to take the land. Harvard could then claim that there was nothing else it could do. Attorneys said, however, that if the matter went that far, Harvard would have an opportunity to challenge condemnation--if it were willing to fight. They did not speculate on the results.
Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference, the project's staunchest opponent, learned last week that its request for a rehearing of its recently denied petition had been turned down by the Federal Power Commission. Appeals court action on that matter may begin soon.
But for Harvard, the possibility of having to make the final decision and pleasing no one at all looms ahead. The Administration reaction is beginning to look like a re-write of The Three Faces of Eve.
