The Northport Power Station is a natural gas and conventional oil electric power generating station located on the north shore of Long Island, at Waterside Avenue & Eatons Neck Road in Northport, New York. The facility was built by the Long Island Lighting Company (LILCO) in 1967 In August 2007 the Northport Power Station became part of National Grid USA as part of their purchase of KeySpan Energy. The plant's electric output is distributed via Long Island Power Authority (LIPA).

Northport is the largest oil-fired electric generating station on the East coast. The four enormous smoke stacks which are a defining landmark of Northport can be seen as far away as Connecticut across Long Island Sound. Each stack is 600 feet tall (183 meters).

Age and pollution

In 2005, a coalition of New York environmental groups issued a report which named the Northport Power Station as the number one polluting plant on Long Island and the second most polluting plant in the Northeast. The plant outputs 5.2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide every year. The reason for these concerns primarily lay with the age of the power plant. The plant was constructed in the 1960s and 1970s, using technologies which are now outdated. When Unit-4 was completed in 1977 it was among the last conventional oil fired-units built in the United States. The plant is exempt from Clean Air Act emissions standards because it was grandfathered in when the law was passed.

As a result of pollution and health concerns, United States Senator Charles E. Schumer and Suffolk County Legislator Jon Cooper have been calling for modernizing the inefficient Northport Power Station.

References

External links

• National Grid USA