Madison County wind farm neighbors feel betrayed by NY state (Guest Opinion)

 Philip Rose and 11 others

 

The following opinion was submitted by residents living near the planned Liberty Renewables wind farm in the town of Fenner. Their names appear at the end.

 

We are proud of the town of Fenner and our town leaders who welcomed 20 250-foot turbines built on a remote piece of farmland in our town. The town and ENEL Northeast (the renewable energy company) worked cooperatively for three years to carefully plan the siting of each turbine, the impact on our lives and homes, and the economic advantages to the town. As a result of ENEL’s project, payments to the town improved roads, maintenance and brought down resident taxes. This arrangement has lasted since 2001. The Fenner Renewal Energy Education Center, a local nonprofit to educate about many different types of renewable energy, works cooperatively with the town and with ENEL, with thousands of people visiting every year.

Recently, New York state has become very aggressive in promoting renewable energy projects. Its plan to reduce consumption of gas and oil is laudable. The signatories of this letter are all deeply concerned about the growing climate crisis and support many local efforts to be part of the solution.

Unfortunately, to implement the state’s climate plan, New York state has turned a blind eye to the impact on our towns and has taken away significant legal power from local municipalities. Instead, it has given international renewable energy companies power to plan and implement large-scale solar and wind projects without negotiations with local municipalities. This is a true betrayal of our citizens and taxpayers and is playing out in Fenner and other farming towns in disastrous ways.

Here is what has happened in Fenner:

Liberty Renewables, representing an international energy company, came to Fenner, Nelson, Smithfield and Eaton; secured leases from some small, and often struggling farms and residents; and developed a large-scale project of 24 700-feet-tall wind turbines. Twelve of these would be sited in Fenner and in the middle of our thriving neighborhood of 230 homes and farms. Liberty Renewable’s tactics in securing leases and in dealing with our objections have been questionable. For example, they made their plans and never consulted with our town; held “open” presentations but only invited those who signed leases; sent their “experts” onto our land without permission, and many other things. When their representatives were challenged, they doubled down.

 

As a result, our neighborhoods have been jeopardized and sold to the highest bidder. These turbines (twice the size of our current 20 turbines and twice the height of the State Tower Building in downtown Syracuse) would tower over our homes on the hills above us, and some would be less than a quarter mile from our homes.

New York is a huge state with open land everywhere. These projects should be located there. The state’s support for the desecration of our small towns instead, under the misguided direction of the Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES), is unconscionable and destructive to the very fabric of our towns. For example, one cluster of homes would have six monster turbines looming above it to the west and two turbines to the south. For another home, there would be a large maintenance building (lights, traffic, fencing) at the end of their driveway.

Many questions about the safety and ability of our towns to handle an industrial project of this size have gone unanswered. What is the impact on the wells and water table? What is the impact on the 911 tower ? (Madison County has done a technical study that proves the turbines will interfere with 911 calls.) What constant hum and flashing lights will we be subjected to? How will the blades be transported on steep and winding roads? How many trees will be destroyed and how many acres of land laid waste? The safety of turbines of this size has never been tested in the high winds that are common in Fenner. What danger is there to a town without a fire station in the face of possible fires in the massive battery storage? How much concrete (which will live in the hills of our towns forever) will be used for these huge turbines that will only last 15 years? These and many other issues have not been adequately addressed.

 

Hundreds of us have protested this project for three years, asking the state to tell Liberty Renewables “no,” and to move the project to a less populated location. They refuse to listen. New York wants to back Liberty Renewables over the wishes of our people and our zoning laws. Is this fair? We think not. It is maddening that our 230 homes will have to endure the expected 36,000 trucks and thousands of tons of concrete and the ruining of our roads and forest to construct these huge turbines.

At one time, state laws gave municipalities a say if New York state had approved hydrofracking. Now these state laws have been set aside, undermining our local town councils. Our town supervisors have been diligent in investigating, attending public hearings and keeping the citizens informed, but have not had a seat at the table and the town’s investigations have been ignored. This is immoral, unethical and cruel. Our state should be protecting its citizens and supporting its local democracies, not punishing us in our very own neighborhoods. We are furious and broken-hearted that, in the name of saving our climate, we would be treated with such disrespect and forced to live with such a massive industrial project.

Please stand with us as we demand that this project be stopped.

Fenner Residents for Neighborhood Preservation:

Philip Rose & Beth Broadway | Cazenovia

Carl Snow & Henri Hamel | Fenner

Laurie & Justin Turner | Fenner

Craig Spicer | Fenner

George & Nadine Wynarczyk | Cazenovia

Donna Spangler | Fenner

Deb & Larry Wilcox | Fenner

 

Madison County wind farm neighbors feel betrayed by NY state (Guest Opinion) - syracuse.com