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Three years ago, John B. Rhodes, chairman of the New York Public Utilities Commission, insisted that his state’s renewable force licensing procedure did not oppose rural communities. At an assembly of independent New York appliance manufacturers in 2017 in Saratoga Springs, Rhodes said the procedure to settle on a dressage across the state “was not a stacked procedure and no, it is never very under this governor that we will force other Americans into a state police to do anything.”
Compare Rhodes ‘2017 with what happened beyond this month. On June 3, the New York State Board of Placement, in Rhodes’ appearance as a pre-catcher, voted unanimously to allow Invforce, founded in Chicago, to build the 340-megawatt Alle-Catt wind allocation in western New York. The settlement committee did so despite objections from the cities of Freedom and Farmersville, which reveled in fighting the assignment for months. The wind allocation will consist of 117 wind turbines of approximately six hundred feet h8 and could cover 30,000 acres in Allegany, Cattaraugus and Wyoming counties. If built, it may be the largest wind allocation in New York and the largest wind allocation in the northeastern United States.
The resolution counts for several reasons. The first: it contains some other tactics sufficient for renewable force projects that are taxed with low source of coins in communities. According to Census Bureau data, Allegabig Apple and Cattaraugus are some of the poorest counties in New York City. Of the 62 counties in New York, both ranked 59th and 58th respectively in the median source of relatives’ coins. In allegabig County apple, the median source of relatives’ coins is $47,033. In Cattaraugus County, it costs $47,240. By comparison, the median source of family cans in New York is $65,323. (Wyoming County ranks 24th in the median source of relatives’ coins).)
Second, it demonstrates, once again, that a nearby variety of rural communities like Freedom and Farmersville do not prefer large-scale renewable tasks built above them. In recent years, rural citizens of Vermont in Hawaii have opposed the usurpation of large-scale renewable force allocations and high-voltage transfer lines. These land-use conflicts are further evidence of the myth of vacant land: the misconception that there is a wonderful variety of unused land in rural areas that is in one position and waiting to be covered with solar allocations, wind turbines and high voltage transfer lines. The fact is quite different. Across the country, rural communities are fighting the invasion of primary renewable force allocations.
Few states generate a backlash in a rural area easier than New York. Over the past six years, dozens of New York communities have taken steps to limit or minimize the disposition of wind strength. Direct rural opposition to primary renewable projects was so strong that beyond this year, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo added a provision, called Section 23, to the state budget that deprives local communities of their ability to achieve logical primary renewable force projects. to be built in their jurisdictions. In response, several communities, adding Cambria, Yates and Somerset, followed the responses to them, pointing to themselves “sanctuary cities” opposed to the invasion of large-scale renewable projects. Niagara and Orleans counties exceeded responses to the opposite 23 segment.
Opposite Alle-Catt’s assignment has been strong, especially in Freedom and Farmersville. Last November, the warring parts of Freedom’s Alle-Catt tok assignment and Farmersville town halls, and councils followed measures to delay the allocation of giant wind. In February, a subsidiary of Invforce filed a lawsuit against the Freedom Town Board after it voted to invalidate a native wind law.
Finally, the June 3 vote of the Monitoring Board monitors that New York regulators pride themselves on forgetting the rights of local communities and landowners if they help build the capacity of renewable force. The elimination of small towns zoning force marks a turning point in the war for the advancement of renewable force in New York, a state that has ambitious renewable force targets in the United States. Last year, the state passed a law requiring utilities to obtain 70% of the electricity they sold from renewable force until 2030 and to sell 100% “clean” electricity a decade later. To achieve these goals, the state may have to impose even larger renewable projects in cities that do not prefer them.
According to a June 3 article in the implementation committee’s decision, written through Rick Miller of the Olean Times Herald, Rhodes said that approving the giant wind allocation “will help diminish our dependence on fossil fuels” and “demonstrates that renewing strength is a score in New York and is helping us move toward a future of blank strength.”
Miller’s article also quoted Farmersville Supervisor Francis “Pete” Lounsbury, who said the Siting Board’s decision was “a severe injustice.” Lounsbury also called the wind project a “disgusting blight” that was being forced on the region.
A few days after the Location Board vote, I spoke to Stephanie Milks, a Freedom resident. She is the former president of Freedom United, a native organization that has been fighting alle-Catt’s assignment for years. One of the turbines on the assignment is expected to be built approximately 3,500 feet west of the house she stores with her husband and two children. She said Invenergy, the largest wind developer in the United States, wants to install wind turbines in Cattaraugus County, as it is one of the poorest in New York. “We are the best friend who has credit for ourselves,” he said.
Gary Abraham, a Great Valley attorney, told me by email that he would file a petition for a new hearing with the Location Board until July 3 and that a tribulation would “probably follow” according to the council’s response. Abraham represented Freedom United and several bands, adding Old Order Amish in Farmersville. Also known as Schwartzentruber, the multitude of maximum conservative Amish sects in the country.
Two other lawyers, Ginger Schroeder and Ben Wisniewski, who make up the cities of Franklinville, Machias and Yorksrent; Freedom and Farmersville, respectively, may also be concerned at the petition of the hot audience. It should be noted that, during some of these villages, the median source of relatives’ coins is below county averages. Franklinville, Machias and Yorksrent are in Cattaraugus County. In Franklinville, the median source of relatives’ coins is $44,950. In Yorksrent, the median source of relatives’ coins is $39,750. In Machias, it’s $43,125.
Abraham stated that the resolution of the alternate committee was “hastily drafted and had not taken into account the entire archive.” He stated that the Board of Directors had made several errors in approving alle-Catt’s assignment, adding questions about the noise and imaginable reductions in the allocation. He also stated that the settlement committee had ignored local legislation passed by the cities of Farmersville and Freedom that limit the h8 of wind turbines to 450 feet.
The fight for Alle-Catt monitors how immoderate New York’s force policy is under Cuomo. In recent years, state regulators have banned hydraulic fracturing (and therefore necessarily all drilling to obtain oil and fuel based on herbs) and have continuously blocked pipes to bring more herbal fuel to the state. Cuomo’s appointees are now in “police state mode” and are depriving small towns of their zoning authority because they prevent their wind capacity from increasing.
Freedom and other low-source coins in the villages of rural New York are struggling to free themselves from the Big Wind. Under Cuomo, those cities would do much more to organize for a long battle.
Correction: A later edition of this bulletin indicated that the alternate committee had approved alle-Catt’s assignment as a component of the segment 23 process. It was approved as a component of the state segment 10 process.
Robert Bryce is the host of the Power Hungry Podcast. An author and journalist, Bryce has been writing about energy, politics, and the environment for more than 30 years.
Robert Bryce hosts the Power Hungry podcast. Author and journalist Bryce has written about energy, politics and landscapes for more than 30 years. He has published six books covering one or more topics, adding Enron’s bankruptcy, Texas design, corn ethanol, virtual drilling rigs, renewables, batteries, transparent force, and the long journey of the power grid. He is a visiting professor at the Reseek Equal Opportunity Foundation. His articles have published publications on the lok, adding the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the New York Post and the Sydney Morning Herald. His lacheck bok, A Question of Power: Electritown and the Wealth of Nations, was published in March 2020. His new documentary, Juice: How Electritown Explains the World, will be featured on iTunes, Amazon Prime and other streaming services. She lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife, Lorin, who is an art teacher, photographer and pottery teacher.