UTICA - State regulators reviewing a controversial $2.1 billion high-voltage power line project have been ordered to stage public meetings in each upstate New York county along the proposed 190-mile route.

The state Public Service Commission had scheduled two public hearings on New York Regional Interconnect's proposed transmission line and was planning a third, PSC spokesman Jim Denn said Monday.

He said the agency was seeking comment from interested parties to determine if more hearings were needed, but administrative law judges Michelle Phillips and Jeffrey Stockholm decided the PSC should hold a total 14 hearings as part of a Sept. 17 ruling addressing procedural matters.

“It is our intent to hold one hearing in or adjacent to every county, as practicable, and to choose locations no further than 15-20 miles from the proposed routes,” the judges wrote.

Denn said the PSC had not yet finalized a hearing schedule.

The meetings will be scheduled between Oct. 21 and mid-November, the judges said.

The PSC's previously scheduled meetings were for Oct. 21 in Oneonta and Oct. 22 in Utica.

The move was seen as a victory for citizens' groups who have been fighting the line for more than two years.

The decision was applauded by Eve Ann Shwartz, co-chair of the Hamilton-based Stop NYRI and a vice chairman of the municipal coalition against the line, Communities Against Regional Interconnect.

“It will allow every community touched by this proposal to have a say,” she said. “This is a good sign that the PSC recognizes the importance of including the public in this process and is going to be listening to the communities.

“They're going to get an earful; we're sure of that,” she said.

NYRI wants to run a transmission line from near Utica to Orange County. Supporters say the line is needed to improve the state's aging power grid and reduce the threat of blackouts like the one that struck the northeast in 2003.

Residents along the proposed path are strongly opposed, saying it will hurt their communities and lead to higher power costs.

NYRI wants to build the line mostly along old railroad beds in one of two areas identified by the federal government as “national interest energy transmission corridors.”