The Power for Jobs program needs to be renewed, in some form or other, before its absence starts costing jobs in Western New York. Everybody in Albany knows it. All they have to do is do it -- before the current special session ends.

But Albany and state lawmakers have had trouble doing anything important this year. Faced with a historic budget deficit, they had to be forced into making difficult decisions by Gov. David A. Paterson's political maneuvering. This one should be comparatively easy.

Although lawmakers are faced with differing ideas about how to reshape the program, the fact is that it must be renewed. As Assemblyman Sam Hoyt, D-Buffalo, wrote to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, companies employing 300,000 people in Western New York that received the energy subsidies now are at risk. Other members of the Assembly warned that layoffs will ensue if the program is not restored.

The program, which helps offset some of the nation's highest electric rates, expired earlier this year. It was, in fact, a flawed program crafted by the Legislature, and needed change. Two competing plans are being considered, one backed by Paterson and the Senate, the other by Assembly Democratic leaders. Now push is coming to shove. The Legislature's session could end any day and, unless there is an agreement on a new program, the penalty will be severe.

Thus, Assembly members are urging Silver to accept the Paterson/Senate plan as an acceptable, if imperfect, resolution. He should, if he cares at all about Western New York. Under the proposal some $80 million in homeowner rebates -- worth only a couple of dollars or less per month -- would be dropped in favor of a new program that would put that money toward upstate economic development. Business groups in Buffalo and elsewhere upstate have backed that approach.

This is a fair compromise, far better than the plan presented earlier this year that would have spread benefits around the state instead of focusing on upstate's needs. In addition, it makes better use of the 445 megawatts of power whose potential impact is frittered away through tens of thousands of minuscule residential rebates.

This is not one to let slip through the cracks. High electric rates are one of the main factors driving business out of or away from New York. Not only are they uncompetitive, but they are in force in a region that produces some of the nation's least expensive electricity, at the Niagara Power Project.

 It's time to bring this matter to a close. Silver should heed his upstate members and quickly reach the right resolution. If that means signing on to the Paterson/Senate bill, it will still be one of the best things the Legislature has done for upstate this year.