by Bob Ciesielski, Atlantic Chapter Energy Committee Chair & David Alicea, Lead New York Organizer
On September 16, 2020, the NYS Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES) issued its proposed regulations to govern the accelerated siting of large-scale renewable energy projects. Public comments on these new regulations will be accepted for a 60-day period from September 16 until mid-November 2020. After the comment period there will be a set of public hearings, including two online hearings that can be found at https://ores.ny.gov/. The Atlantic Chapter and the New York Sierra Club Team will be forwarding action items and talking points to our members concerning the regulations. We ask our members to please participate in these comments.
In April 2020, the New York Legislature passed and Governor Cuomo signed the Accelerated Renewable Energy Growth and Community Benefit Act, which authorized the creation of the Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES). The act directed that new regulations be drafted and adopted for ORES to guide the siting of large-scale renewable energy projects in the state. The new regulations will supersede the current Article 10 power project siting process for large-scale renewables, under which only six renewable generation facilities have been approved since 2012. These new accelerated siting procedures will help insure that the state reaches its goal of 70% renewable electricity by 2030.
The new ORES procedures should reduce the inefficiency of the Article 10 siting process. However, the application process under the accelerated procedure will review the same 25 issues as were required to be considered under Article 10. These include bats, birds and other wildlife migration and habitats, setbacks for wind turbines and solar arrays, noise and vibrations, required meetings with municipalities and local officials, etc.
The new regulations also include many uniform standards adopted from best practices of industry and health organizations over the years. Adoption of these uniform standards will eliminate much of the discussion and litigation that hinder the approval process under Article 10. For example, wind turbines must comply with noise standards of an average of 45 decibels (dBa) for 8 hours outside any non-participating residence. (In the evening, per acoustic experts, this would result in 30 decibels indoors.) Both Article 10 and the proposed new regulations include provisions to set aside local laws that are deemed unreasonably burdensome.
An accelerated procedure for renewable energy siting is necessary. With the current health and economic crisis in our country, we need the construction and operation of renewable energy projects to provide jobs, manufacturing and investments in New York. The projects will also assist local governments and school districts to secure tax revenue paid by these installations. As part of the siting procedure, large scale renewable energy developers also offer millions of dollars in lease payments to farmers who are able to maintain their property and agriculture, and millions more in host community payments to provide additional benefits to towns and schools.
The Accelerated Renewable Energy Growth and Community Benefit Act also includes provisions for developers to offer discounts and credits on electricity bills to residents of host communities. Included in these benefits is, of course, the obligation to eliminate carbon dioxide and methane gas from our energy system to control global climate change.
In her book Braiding Sweetgrass, Native American author Robin Wall Kimmerer writes of the “Honorable Harvest” as a means of maintaining a habitable Earth for future generations. Discussing energy, she reflects that “[it] does not mean we can’t consume the energy we need, but it does mean that we honorably take only what is given. The wind blows every day, every day the sun shines, every day the waves roll against the shore, and the Earth is warm below us. We can understand these renewable sources of energy as given to us, since they are the sources that have powered life on the planet for as long as there has been a planet. We need not destroy the Earth to make use of them. Solar, wind, geothermal, and tidal energy – the so-called “clean energy” harvests – when they are wisely used, seem to me to be consistent with the ancient rules of the Honorable Harvest.”
We will be posting our sample comments and guidance on our Atlantic Chapter website and reaching out via email. If you’d like to be kept in the loop, please contact David Alicea at david.alicea@sierraclub.org.
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