CARMEL- State Senator Peter Harckham has taken the Carmel Town Board to task for approving a resolution expressing concerns about the potential implications of a renewable energy act.
The act grants extensive powers to the Office of Renewable Energy Siting which Supervisor Michael Cazzari charged “undermines local autonomy in evaluating and permitting renewable energy projects; specifically, the erosion of local home rule, zoning codes, and planning norms. We are urging State Legislators to consider our concerns and preserve local government rights in regulating development and land use by opposing the overreach by ORES and request a repeal of the act.”
The town board’s resolution came on the heals of next Wednesday’s hearing when hundreds of residents of southern Mahopac and Baldwin Place are expected to attend a public hearing at Carmel Town Hall demanding that the town enact a moratorium to prevent the construction of a 116 megawatt battery energy storage system to be constructed on a 93 acre parcel of land on the Carmel-Somers town line. To date, many residents have voiced their concerns about the proposed project.
Harckham, a Democrat, has charged that the “interjection of partisan politics into the situation, has added to the challenges in addressing the real worries of homeowners while offering support to the municipalities involved.”
The Carmel Town Board is comprised of four Republicans.
Harckham noted: “Despite my repeated declarations of respect for the autonomy of the town of Carmel’s Planning Board and its decision-making processes on local zoning, Republicans at all levels of government have sought to take partisan advantage of the issue and fabricated wildly outrageous claims and lies purporting to the contrary.”
The senator charged: “At a recent Carmel Town Board meeting, it was erroneously noted that the state had overruled local zoning for the placement of cell towers, and that Governor Hochul would do the same for the battery energy storage project— even though there is no basis in law for her to do so. A town board resolution in opposition to the state’s oversight on where to place renewable energy facilities, like wind and solar farms, was a diversion, as it had no impact on a stand-alone energy storage system.”
Harckham also criticized Congressman Mike Lawler and Assemblyman Matt Slater for “pouring gas on the fire by issuing a joint press release declaring victory for home rule after my legislation enabling the Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES) to help communities with battery energy storage system proposals was pulled back, its enacting clause stricken, because the bill’s language was made invalid by the new state budget, which gives this responsibility now to the Public Service Commission.”
Harckham said he had communicated with the Carmel Planning Board back in April that it should engage in a “robust public engagement process” regarding East Point Energy’s proposed Union Energy Center project, which has resulted in the upcoming public hearing. Harckham also said he had “publicly supported Carmel’s proposed moratorium on siting a battery energy storage system while it considers more comprehensive local regulations.”
Harckham called on the town and state to “work together when it counts. Politicizing each and every issue possible continues to be a model of failure. The Carmel Town Board’s resolution about the state’s oversight on where to place renewable energy facilities, like wind and solar farms, struck me as both unhelpful and diversionary.”
In his letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul, Cazzari said “while we are supportive of renewable energy initiatives, we are deeply concerned about the potential implications of the act on the traditional roles and powers of local governments in New York State specifically we are troubled by the perceived erosion of local home rule, zoning codes and planning.”
Cazzari said his board “perceived the act as overreach and we implore the New York State Legislature to review our concerns and take appropriate action to uphold the rights of local governments to regulate development and land use within their respective communities.”
