Technical session on Lighthouse Wind shouldn’t exclude stakeholders

Editor:

A “technical session”involving Apex “Clean Energy,” the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and US Fish and Wildlife representatives was held on March 30 involving proposed project Lighthouse Wind, a project to construct 70, 600-foot-high wind turbines on the shore of Lake Ontario in the towns of Somerset and Yates.

Somerset technical representatives were explicitly excluded from this session and that is of great concern. First and foremost, why the exclusion? What is being hidden, decided or discussed about the proposed Lighthouse Wind project that must be withheld from a key stakeholder? What other things are going on that we know nothing about? These questions deserve immediate answers.

So far there has been a round of eight lawyerly letters, shockingly, one from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Office of the General Counsel, that concurs with this exclusion. It appears that some public officials are forgetting the people they represent.

If Article 10 , the state law governing the siting of these turbines, can legitimately be interpreted in this way, it is a deeply flawed law. Further this action is contrary to the public outreach program supposedly being conducted by Apex. A policy of exclusion only serves to deepen the mistrust and dislike our community has for Apex “Clean Energy”and the Article 10 process.

This is another reason why proposed project Lighthouse Wind should be terminated.

James C. Hoffman
Somerset