Need To Stop Coumo!

[mostlymuskies]

Below is the statement sent out by the New York State Conservation Council concerning Governor Cuomo's budget amendment that strips local rights from towns and villages when it comes to siting and building Industrial Wind Factories and Industrial Solar Arrays.

 

NYSCC - Advocating for Conservation and Sportsmen Since 1933

 

On February 25, 2020, Governor Andrew Cuomo presented a 30-Day Budget Amendment to the 2020-21 NY Budget which eliminates "home rule" and local input in the process of citing and permitting of renewable energy projects, such as Industrial Wind Turbine (IWT) facilities and Industrial Solar Arrays (ISA), stating the already deeply flawed existing process is too slow to meet the Governor's personal goal of eliminating fossil fuel usage in NYS for electrical energy production by 2040.

 

The New York State Conservation Council (NYSCC) stands firmly opposed to this blatant usurpation of local rights and is utterly appalled that the Governor would cite an arbitrary goal masquerading as law recently passed as the justification.

 

With all energy projects, due diligence is the biggest responsibility our elected officials have to the people whom they serve. When it comes to citing any power plant, but especially IWT and ISA, where large amounts of acreage is required to build such facilities, the proper place for protecting residents resides at the local level -- and only the local level -- not some ivory tower hundreds of miles away. This is enshrined in the NYS Constitution, following the principles in the US Constitution and the concept of local right of self-governance (10th Amendment).

 

Running roughshod over the rights of the people in order to pursue a personal political agenda, the Governor has proposed, and must indeed support, ignoring dangers and potential unjustified damage to residents, farmland, property values and wildlife well-being -- specifically bats and birds -- that help keep nuisance insects and rodents in check. Even the quality of our drinking waters and the health of watersheds and aquifers are at risk, all in the vain attempt to realize an arbitrary, ideologically-based goal that has FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) filing suit against NY and Cuomo's ill-advised energy policy that puts in direct risk the electrical grid of the eastern seaboard of the United States, and even Canada.

 

The issue of "renewable" energy and siting new power plants is NOT a budgetary item; and it is completely inappropriate to introduce such legislation in the 2020-21 budget. This proposal must be debated in the appropriate committees, such as Energy and Environmental Conservation, in each legislative house. The Ways and Means committee alone is not sufficient, further illustrating the Governor's disdain for even legal due diligence - something he swore an oath to uphold and defend, as do all public servants.

 

The NYSCC roundly condemns this dangerous and irresponsible proposal, and in no uncertain terms insists on its immediate removal from the 2020-21 Budget. We call upon all members to contact their respective legislators and voice strong opposition to Governor Cuomo's budget amendment regarding citing and permitting renewable energy projects. Contact your town, village, and state representatives and push for removal of this provision from the budget.

 

Statement prepared by Rich Davenport, NYSCC Region 9 Alternate Director

 

Sent from my SM-G960U using Lake Erie United Mobile App

 

 

[jimski2]

Ontario has thousands of lakeside windmills but they are on near shore land, not in our precious drinking water source that we share. They would certainly object to the invasion of our shared waters. The native Americans lost their land to us but never gave up their waters. This is a stupid poorly thought out plan.


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