Gov. Kathy Hochul’s plans for the Empire State to go inexperienced are going south as native communities refuse to construct huge battery crops that might retailer wind and photo voltaic vitality.
One upstate city the place a high state official main the state’s anti-fossil gas push simply voted to ban development of the crops — and one New York Metropolis politician has already known as to pause any new websites for the amenities.
“We known as for — and nonetheless assist — a moratorium on these [Battery Energy Storage System] amenities nearly two years in the past,” stated Vito Fossella, borough president of Staten Island, the place greater than a dozen of the amenities are deliberate.
“They’re being positioned actually proper subsequent door to individuals’s houses, and even subsequent to a gasoline station,” Fosella stated. “The town is taking part in with hearth by permitting any such reckless coverage to proceed.”
Duanesburg — the place New York State Power Analysis and Improvement president and CEO Doreen Harris lives — lately voted to ban BESS buildings as a result of they “will pose a risk to the general public well being security and welfare of residents of the City and their property,” in response to a decision by the city board.
Duanesburg officers stated they selected the ban, first reported by the Each day Gazette, as a result of the city depends on volunteer firefighters and that a part of the city lacks entry to public water. Critics have stated they aren’t solely a fireplace hazard, however might spark a blaze that takes longer to extinguish and would spew toxins into the air.
The BESS backlash is a blow to the state’s plan to cut back greenhouse gasoline emissions by 40% by 2030 and obtain 100% zero-carbon emission electrical energy by 2040 below the the Local weather Management and Neighborhood Safety Act of 2019.
The amenities are thought-about very important in that inexperienced push however different communities are digging in towards deliberate development of the amenities, whether or not they’re immediately hooked up to development of latest alternative-energy crops or standalone battery crops.
Large opposition has mounted towards a 116-megawatt storage website on the Westchester County-Putnam County line. The city of Carmel in Putnam voted final October to ban lithium battery storage techniques.
In an ironic twist, the Indian Level nuclear plant in Buchanan, Westchester County closed in 2020 due to public well being and security issues and residents in the identical space at the moment are opposing the battery storage plant as a harmful various.
“That is the best BS story advised to the general public,” stated Roland Ciafone, a Somers resident.
Ciafone, who was a upkeep supervisor at Indian Level for 25 years, stated the nuke vitality plant was safer on the finish of the day.
“Indian Level was the most secure factor since apple pie,” he claimed.
The pushback comes after a blaze final month that erupted at one of many world’s largest lithium-ion battery storage amenities in Monterey County, California, forcing the evacuation of 1,500 residents. Scientists subsequently reported excessive concentrations of heavy metals in soil within the neighborhood.
“This know-how is forward of presidency’s means to manage it and trade’s means to regulate it,” Monterey County Supervisor Glenn Church stated after Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered a probe of the blaze.
“This course of we at the moment are in, which is studying as we go, simply doesn’t work. It jeopardizes communities,” he stated, additionally calling the fireplace the “Three Mile Island occasion for this trade,” referring to the 1979 nuclear meltdown in Londonderry, Pennsylvania.
Harris and NYSERDA declined to remark.
NYSERDA’s mission assertion stated it really works to advertise vitality effectivity, renewable vitality, and emissions discount throughout New York.
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