Boyle's support was crucial to the litigation between local environmentalists, organized under the Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference (Scenic Hudson), and Consolidated Edison (Con Ed), New York's chief electric utility in the case "Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference v. Federal Power Commission". The case involved Con Ed's proposal to build a hydropower facility on Storm King Mountain in the Hudson Highlands. Scenic Hudson, joined by the Nature Conservancy, filed a complaint against the plant, but the Federal Power Commission (FPC) approved it, ignoring likely ecological harm. Boyle studied this case and found that a "New York Fish and Game Journal" article identified this part of the Hudson as a key spawning ground for striped bass. He informed Scenic Hudson of this result. The FPC rejected this data due to testimony of a former New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) biologist.