TOWN OF CAPE Vincent
April 4, 2013
Acting Secretary, NYS Board of
Electric Power
Generation Siting and Environment
Three Empire State Plaza
Albany, New York 12223-1350
Re: Case 12-F-0410 Cape Vincent Wind
Power, LLC
Dear Secretary Cohen:
Governor Andrew Cuomo, at the
signing of Power NY legislation in August of 2011, remarked
of the bill: "The act gives
community members a voice in the siting process and will maintain
New York's position as a leader
in environmental protection .... (It)
affords
communities more
opportunity to meaningfully
participate in the siting process."
It's true that the legislation
that created the new Article 10 law has given those who live in and
around Cape Vincent an
opportunity to voice their opinions about British Petroleum's (BP)
proposed wind power project
there.
We've taken the opportunity to
read all 290 comments submitted to the Siting Board so far. By
our count, 224 individuals have
expressed concerns about or outright opposition to the proposed
development. (Some individuals
have submitted multiple comments.) Twenty-tour individuals
have expressed support.
Surely Governor Cuomo did not
envision Article 10 as a device to force a wind project on a
community where it is thoroughly
unwelcome. We trust that overwhelming opposition to BP's
efforts in our town for almost a
decade will have a "meaningful" impact on the siting process.
Yet it appears the voice of the
clear majority has had no discernible impact on BP's
determination to continue
progressing through the certification process - showing no interest in
the dominant community sentiment.
Yet it appears the voice of the
clear majority has had no discernible impact on BP's
determination to continue through
the certification process. It
has
submitted a preliminary
scoping statement that willfully
disregards every concern that our town government has
expressed since the project was
proposed several years ago.
The Public Service Commission
concluded that BP's public involvement program was
"inadequate" and
subsequently recommended ways to "address the relevant requirements in the
new regulations." (Letter
from DPS to John Harris, Oct. 17, pg. 2). BP was essentially non responsive.
BP has ignored or failed to heed
the following recommendations:
· "Representatives and
residences of adjacent municipalities" - specifically Wolfe Island -
should be considered potential
stakeholders (Letter from DPS to John Harris, Oct. 17, pg. 2 - #4).
BP also ignored a request from
Wolfe Island officials to discuss the project. (Letter from Dennis
Doyle to BP CEO Katrina Landis,
Feb. 19).
· BP has not provided a map that
clearly shows project boundaries, setbacks from property lines,
location of turbines, a legend of
host landowners and adjacent landowners as well as more
specific locations of electric
lines, substations, switch yards and interconnection points.( Letter from DPS to
John Harris, Oct. 17, pg. 3). In doing so, BP has failed to meet the
requirements of a
PIP as defined in the legislation
as "ensur(ing) communication between stakeholders and an
applicant, and result(ing) in
education of the public as to the specific proposal and the Article 10
process." (16 CRR-NY
1000.2ah)
· BP has not identified a
location of reasonable alternative sites for this project. (Letter from DPS
to John Harris, Oct. 17,
Attachment I, pg. 2, #1 c)
In addition, BP included several
action items in its PIP - and the subsequent revision -that the
company never completed:
· BP identified nine (9)
organizations in its PIP that it planned to contact, but did not
subsequently list in its chart of
tracked contacts: Jefferson County, U.S. Department of
Homeland Security, New York State
Department of Transportation, New York State Office of
General Services, New York State
Empire State Development, Department of Defense
Clearinghouse for Energy
Development, U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, National Grid
and the Thousand Islands Central
School.
· BP did not follow through on its
own plan to solicit input from stakeholders within the
environmental justice area.
· In its revised PIP, BP said it
had created "fact sheets" on health & safety and
environment/wildlife topics
(Revised PIP, pg. 22 - F). If those exist, they are not available on the
project's official website.
· In its revised PIP, BP
suggested public comments from all of its public events and from its
office "may" be
provided on their website (Revised PIP, pg. 22 - F). As of today, those had not
appeared on the site.
· In its revised PIP, BP said
"responses to commonly asked questions from the 'open house' and
'Article 10 Intervenor' events
will be posted on the website under' Frequently Asked Questions'"
(Revised PIP, pg. 24). That
section does not exist on the website.
In summary, BP both ignored
recommendations from your commission to "address the relevant
requirements in the new regulations" and
promised - but did not follow through on – several
action items that would have
better educated the public about its project.
In a visit to the north country
last August, Mr. Cuomo called the Article 10 legislation "an
intelligence balance between
local input" and an expeditious process. He praised home rule "as
very important - where a locality
decides their destiny, "but added, "There also has to be a
reasonableness. Because we have
to remember: At the end of the day, we need power."
We believe it quite reasonable to
require BP to submit a public involvement program that is
considered adequate by any
reasonable standard. I also believe it is reasonable to conclude that
if BP tells the Siting Board it
will make a certain outreach, that they do it.
The community of Cape Vincent has
spoken in near harmony. We have listened to BP
representatives for several
years, but a steady series of non-answers leaves us with many
unaddressed concerns about the
project's impact on their health, safety and welfare. When does
this opposition actually have a
"meaningful" impact in the certification process?
Respectfully yours,
Urban Hirschey - Town Supervisor
Brooks Bragdon - Deputy
Supervisor
John Byrne - Town Council
Clifford Schneider - Town Council
Michelle Oswald - Town Council
We the
undersigned appointed officials from the Town of Cape Vincent endorse and
fully
support this Town Board letter to the Public Service Commission regarding the
Article
10 application for the Cape Vincent Wind Power project proposal
Richard Macsherry - Planning
Board Chairman
Robert Brown - Planning Board
Cyril Cullen - Planning Board
Paul Docteur - Planning Board
R. Dennis Faulknham - Zoning
Board of Appeals Charman
Ed Hludzenski - Zoning Board of
Appeals
Keith Walker - Zoning Board of
Appeals
Hester Chase - Zoning Board of
Appeals
James Millington - Zoning Enforcement Officer
No comments:
Post a Comment