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Dear SOS Supporters,
Save Ontario Shores, Inc. has worked over the past 4+ years to push back against the industrialization of the towns of Yates and Somerset from Apex’s Lighthouse Wind project. We have focused on such local concerns as noise and infrasound (the low frequency sound waves that we do not hear but are present) which can affect our health, property values, impact on tourism, and the huge impact on bats, birds and raptors in our migration flyway along the southern shore of Lake Ontario.
The Lighthouse Wind project has been put on hold temporarily by Apex with an assertion that they will not file an application in 2019. But there are projects that have been on hold for a decade and then are put forth as active, are approved and then built! SOS will continue to closely monitor Apex.
The Towns of Yates and Somerset have established laws to protect our health, welfare and environment. Under Article 10, the electrical generation siting law for projects over 25 MW, the Department of Public Service (DPS) has authority to overrule local laws if they are deemed to be “unduly burdensome”. But the DPS has indicated that they want corporations to work with towns that are in favor of these projects so that state level intervention in local laws will not be needed. Of course, this may change.
However, there are organizations and large-scale green energy corporations that do not live in the rural communities targeted by these projects and they have proceeded to make judgments about how these large-scale renewable energy projects should be handled. They believe that local concerns are misinformed and that the process should move more quickly. One example is in the paper drafted in April 2019 by the New York League of Conservation Voters entitled "Breaking the Barriers to Siting Renewable Energy in New York State".
Fortunately, we have advocates like Gary Abraham, an environmental attorney representing SOS and other citizen groups in NYS. He is familiar with the issues facing rural areas being targeted for industrial wind projects. He takes exception to many of the statements made in the League's paper and outlines its major flaws in an executive summary and detailed analysis which can be found on the homepage of our website. Gary also wrote an editorial which was published recently in the Albany Times Union. You can also find that on our website.
Gary Abraham’s White Paper
A typical upstate wind project will reduce New York’s carbon dioxide emissions by about 0.05%, according to information developed in the State siting process. This means that it will take 20 industrial wind projects to reduce the State’s emissions by 1%. Considering the small contribution industrial wind projects can make to New York’s emissions reduction goals, this report’s emphasis on overcoming rural resistance is misplaced.
Gary Abraham’s Editorial published in the Albany Times Union
"Breaking the Barriers" dismisses local planning documents and zoning laws that address a community's vision for itself and its relation to development. Such laws should be respected by developers looking for siting options.
Rural communities trying to reasonably preserve and develop rural amenities see the spoliation of the night sky with dozens and dozens of elevated blinking red FAA warning lights, the fragmentation of forested lands, and the introduction of an industrial noise source as the wrong kind of development. In light of the small contribution they can make to New York's emissions reduction goals, this report's emphasis on developing large scale renewables upstate is at best misplaced.
We encourage you to take the time to read these documents.
Stop by and see us at the Lyndonville 4th of July festivities. And, as always, thank you for your support!
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SOS is 100% funded by generous local individuals. Please consider joining this work by giving what you can. SOS is a not for profit corporation and it is not a tax exempt organization, so donations are not deductible for tax purposes.
We have a donation button on our web site SaveOntarioShores.com
Checks can be sent to:
Save Ontario Shores
PO Box 216
Lyndonville, NY 14098
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