Lighthouse Wind, LLC, signs NY code of conduct

4 state legislators say project jeopardizes Air Reserve Station

BARKER – Lighthouse Wind, LLC, announced today the company has signed New York’s updated code of conduct.

The company in recent months has been criticized by members of Save Ontario Shores, a citizens’ group opposed to the large-scale wind turbine project, for not signing the code of conduct.

Lighthouse Wind is an Apex Clean Energy subsidiary. Lighthouse Wind contacted the Office of the Attorney General last year in regard to the code, the company said today.

After review of the existing code and in light of significant permitting changes, the attorney general’s office revised the code. After receipt of the updated code, Lighthouse Wind said it immediately engaged in an ongoing dialogue with the attorney general’s office regarding ministerial corrections and clarifications to the new 2016 New York State Code of Conduct for Wind Farm Development.

“The attorney general’s office provided Lighthouse Wind, along with other wind developers in New York, with the updated Code of Conduct agreement to review in February,” said Mark Goodwin, president and chief operating officer of Apex. “After careful review and discussions with the attorney general’s office, Lighthouse Wind is pleased to sign the Code of Conduct. We look forward to exercising our due diligence and providing all necessary information as requested. We are confident that the tasks that we have performed to date make us well prepared for compliance.”

Apex is looking to build up to 71 wind turbines in Yates and Somerset as part of Lighthouse Wind. The turbines could peak at 620 feet high from the top of the turbine blades.

A local delegation of state legislators has stepped up pressure on the Public Service Commission, saying in a letter last month to PSC Secretary Kathleen Burgess the tall turbines raise serious concerns.

State Sen. Robert Ortt (62nd District), Sen. Michael Ranzehofer (61st District), Assemblywoman Jane Corwin (144th District) and Assemblywoman Angela Wozniak (143rd District) sent a joint letter to Burgess, expressing their concerns regarding the proposed industrial wind turbine project for Niagara and Orleans counties.

The legislators worry the turbines could have a negative impact on the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station military operating area.

“We have serious concerns that these wind turbines will affect airspace around the base and make it less likely to be considered for future missions,” the legislators wrote in a joint letter. “In 1995, the base was reviewed for closure during a Base Closure and Realignment Commission (BRAC). It was again reviewed for closure in a 2005 BRAC, and again in 2012 during the US Air Force Structure Adjustment. With everpresent BRAC and restructuring threats to the base, we cannot risk these wind turbines jeopardizing the future of the Base and all those who are supported by it.

“Encroachment is one of the key factors the military uses when determining the future of a base and NFARS currently ranks favorably in that area,” they wrote. “We cannot allow wind turbines to interfere with radar or flights and thereby jeopardize the future of the base.”