Quite a fury is erupting over a proposal to build a 200-mile electric transmission line to Orange County from Utica, and a lot is at stake for New York City. The line’s developers hope their project will be finished by 2011, at which point it would ferry 1,200 megawatts to the electricity-starved city from electricity-rich upstate. That would be one year after experts predict the city will start experiencing a power shortage that will eventually require as much as 7,000 megawatts of new capacity to overcome. Already this summer, city residents have gained a taste of what life is like when they can’t depend on the power grid. Now the question is, what are their politicians going to do about it?

So far, the answer turns out to be not much. New York City has an electric Achilles’ heel — there isn’t enough transmission capacity into the city. So by law the city has to produce 80% of the electricity it consumes within the five boroughs. Most of that in-city production comes from generators burning coal or natural gas, since renewable alternatives like wind and hydropower aren’t feasible options. It’s a lose-lose-lose situation for city residents and businesses. Prices are high because supply is chronically tight, prices have been even higher of late thanks to the increased cost of coal and natural gas, and city residents have to put up with the pollution the plants generate.

While it may not be possible, or even necessarily desirable, to import all of the city’s electricity any time soon, New Yorkers would benefit from an energy strategy that provided for more easily importing some electricity. The New York Regional Interconnection might prove to be part of such a strategy. It would provide relief along what the Department of Energy just last week described as one of the most critically congested electric corridors in the country, increasing reliability and decreasing electric costs for consumers.

The line’s proponents calculate that, by increasing available supply into the lower Hudson region, the project would save New York City electric customers about $11 billion over 20 years as market forces drove down the prices on more readily available electrons. Such a line would also provide new incentives for investors to develop plants elsewhere in the state since it would be easier for them to get their product into the city market. Even as the city struggles to power itself today, many upstate generators operate below capacity because there isn’t anywhere to sell their juice.

The NYRI project is still in the early days of its permitting process. It’s not too soon to say, however, that it’s especially intriguing because its developers claim they will privately finance its entire cost and pay property taxes to upstate communities. So why are politicians unwilling to touch the project with a 10-foot utility pole? Senators Clinton and Schumer are hiding behind calls for more studies. Eliot Spitzer is on the fence, while John Faso is outright opposed. Only Mayor Bloomberg has voiced any sort of support for the project, although even then it has been in the form of calling on the governor to veto legislation designed to kill NYRI outright.

Whatever the merits, this project is putting pressure on politicians to develop an electricity strategy for the city. Mr. Faso is has the closest to such a plan in the governor’s race, having pointed out the folly of Mr. Spitzer’s plan to close the Indian Point nuclear plant that currently provides about 11% of the city’s electricity. While Mr. Faso announced opposition to NYRI, he called for more generating capacity to be built near where the power is needed. That can only be part of a power plan. The race is on for a candidate — and a senator — who understands that part of the solution to New York’s electric shortage will require standing up for private upstate companies that want to invest in a system to deliver more power into the city.