No credible fiscal or engineering analysis was ever presented to support the state plan. While Governor Hochul herself recently noted that state policy will prove costly, any expense at all to tax- or rate-payers in pursuit of a plan which will not work, which, ultimately, will require a new plan to fix the ensuing energy catastrophe, is a mistake.…
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Who will pay for NY HEAT? The cost of a $672-million bailout for a few of the hundreds of thousands of utility customers currently in arrears will be borne by other utility customers. Every New Yorker will help fund subsidies for industrial solar and wind projects which could gobble up a million acres and yet fail to provide reliable electricity.…
New Leaf Energy has proposed to erect two 650-foot turbines in the Town of Stark, with a nameplate rating of 10 Megawatts (5 MW). According to the project materials, one of the turbines would be placed some 72 feet from the Springfield town line.…
Letter from Ted Potrikus Mixed Messages Threaten Article IX Last week’s editorial, “Saving Article IX,” appropriately cautions New Yorkers to defend home rule and guard against efforts that would erode our right to govern our localities as we see fit.…
The Partial Observer What If? Unpacking the Net-Zero Transition On December 19, 2022 the Climate Action Council charged with developing strategies to implement New York’s “Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act” issued the “Scoping Plan” that outlines their recommendations to meet a net-zero goal by 2050. This year the Department of Environmental Conservation will propose regulations and the Legislature will consider legislation to implement those recommendations. The Scoping Plan outlines how to “achieve the State’s bold clean energy and climate…
A Partial Observer Town of Columbia Residents Wary of Project The Town of Columbia is being pitched a 350 megawatt solar and 20 MW battery storage project by French owned, and San Diego based EDF Renewables. The project outreach to local landowners began quietly in 2019 and will require approximately 2,200 usable, contiguous acres—equal to 10 percent of the land in the Town of Columbia, which is known to have some of the most fertile farmland in the state. The…
Column by Dr. Richard Sternberg Thermal Nuclear Fusion: A Christmas Hope The most important news item of the 21st century occurred on Tuesday, December 13. It was not about the war in Ukraine. It was not about the U.S. political crisis or political crises anywhere else in the world. It had nothing to do with the ongoing three-year pandemic that we’ve gone through and which is now being exacerbated by epidemics of influenza, respiratory syncytial virus, and other diseases. The…
Panel to Discuss NY Energy Plans On Sunday, October 16 from 3-4:30 p.m., Cooperstown’s Friends of the Village Library and Otsego 2000 will co-host a 90-minute panel discussion on how New York State’s energy plan will affect the community. Topics will include the process for siting of renewable energy projects, the possible use of farmland and forest and how multiple use might be encouraged, and the present and future energy demands in our region and state and how those demands…
Otsego 2000 Energy Statement September 2022 We at Otsego 2000 applaud the progress that has been made at local, state, and federal levels with regard to clean, renewable, and carbon-free energy production and we hope that this is only the beginning for serious, thoughtful, and timely policies to protect our environment. At the local level, leaders in Cooperstown have contracted with solar power producers in the North Country region to offset 100 percent of the electrical demand for municipal buildings…
News from the Noteworthy Land Use, Energy and the Economic Future of Upstate New York Climate change and land use are inextricably bound together. The collision between the two creates tension. We are experiencing that tension in multiple ways — not least of which is the drive to create more renewable energy through use of solar and wind-power generation on central New York farmland. There currently are proposals — some approved and some being considered — to develop large solar…