- By Mike Sigler
- Opinions
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I’ve spent the last month telling you and your neighbors about large, utility scale solar power plants that are being planned for Lansing. Many didn’t know about these plans, but today many more do, than when I started. As many of you know, I’ve been collecting signatures on my petition in person and at: https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/lansingsolar#comments , calling for larger setbacks, between 1000 and 1500 feet from homes and roads, wildlife corridors, 20 percent set asides for pollinators, co-location of agriculture on these sites, notification of neighboring landowners, vegetation buffers and berms, and avoidance of active farm land when building these arrays. These powerplants will stretch over 1000 to 1500 acres and Lansing is being looked at by more than one solar company for construction. For an idea of scale, that’s between two and three Tompkins County International Airports being built in Lansing, per project.
I will be submitting this petition to the state, but there’s another way to make your voice heard as the state considers the draft utility-scale renewable energy siting rules from the new NYS Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES). You can look at the draft regulations and comment directly to the state here: https://ores.ny.gov/regulations
Comments are due November 16th for the largest section, more than 130 pages of the rules that you can read at: https://ores.ny.gov/draft-regulations-chapter-xviii-title-19-subparts-900-1-900-5-900-7-900-14 and on December 6 for the smaller section, https://ores.ny.gov/draft-regulations-chapter-xviii-title-19-subparts-900-6 .
ORES has until April 3, 2021 to hold at least four public hearings. Virtual public hearings (electronic media and telephone) will be held on 11/24 and 11/30. I’ll be going to the in-person hearing, November 18th, 5 pm to 9 pm. There are several others and you can find them at: https://ores.ny.gov/events I hope to see you there.
These powerplants will be the largest construction projects in town history. They will change vast sections of Town and the more local input we can offer now, the better. The state will be in charge of siting these powerplants, taking that power out of the town’s hands. This may be your best chance to tell the state what your concerns are and what you hope they will take into account when building these projects. The goal of setting up ORES by the state is to fastrack these projects; other past projects were derailed by local opposition. You may be opposed to these solar arrays or you may support them, but either way, I hope you’ll see the restrictions I’m asking for as reasonable and will help protect the nature of the town and the entire Finger lakes area that we’ve protected for so long. Make your voice heard!
Mike Sigler
Lansing, NY
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