North Country businesses including farmers will get a one-year, 10 percent break on their power bills, Governor David Paterson announced Tuesday.
The Governor appeared at a dairy farm in Cape Vincent to make his announcement.
The money comes from Alcoa's unused hydropower during the shutdown of its Alcoa East plant.
The unused power is being sold for about $10 million. National Grid will credit power bills for the 10 percent discount.
Businesses which have a business account will be automatically discounted starting in November. Farms, which have residential accounts will need to fill out a brief application to the New York Power Authority.
"This is an extremely difficult time for the dairy industry and it's really all-hands-on-deck in order to try to help, in particular, the dairy farmer," Paterson said.
He was joined by NYPA Chairman Richard Kessel, utility officials, State Senator Darrel Aubertine, Assemblywoman Addie J. Russell, a number of dairy farmers and others.
The Governor then traveled to Clayton for a visit to the Antique Boat Museum and a meeting with local officials.
