O'Mara, Senate colleagues hold energy roundtable: Today’s roundtable discussion centered on large-scale solar projects, their impacts on local communities

I appreciate this opportunity to join my legislative colleagues to try to advance a broader and more transparent public discussion surrounding New York State's aggressive push to site large-scale solar projects in communities, particularly rural communities across the upstate region. It's not getting the attention it demands.

Syracuse, NY - Senator Tom O'Mara and Senator Pam Helming along with Senator Mark Walczyk led a roundtable discussion focused on addressing the issue of energy in New York State. This energy roundtable is the first of several that will be hosted by members of the Senate Republican Conference in regions across the state while New Yorkers struggle to keep up with skyrocketing energy policies stemming from burdensome green energy mandates from Albany. 

The focus of today’s roundtable discussion centered on large-scale solar projects, their impacts on local communities, the role of ORES (Office of Renewable Energy Siting and Electric Transmission) when it comes to siting renewable energy projects, and their lack of consideration of local input from municipalities. 

O'Mara said, “I appreciate this opportunity to join my legislative colleagues to try to advance a broader and more transparent public discussion surrounding New York State's aggressive push to site large-scale solar projects in communities, particularly rural communities across the upstate region. It's not getting the attention it demands. Albany Democrats have given ORES broad authority over the siting of wind, solar, and other renewable energy projects throughout New York State. This authority includes the power to overrule local decision-making, which has raised serious concerns among local residents, local governments, and local environmental stakeholders, particularly in rural, upstate New York regions where many of these projects are being sited. We believe it’s critically important that ORES is fully accountable and transparent, and that its actions remain fully in line with strict environmental standards, sensitive to local concerns, and don’t put at risk prime agricultural land and other natural resources.”

Helming said, “Today I met with a homeowner who has solar panels going up just outside his front door as part of a massive, 1,400-acre industrial solar project. He and his neighbors will live with this project for years, but their town did not get to decide whether it belonged there. ORES made that decision. Albany Democrats created ORES through a state budget passed in the middle of the night. The public had no meaningful chance to review and comment on this sweeping loss of local control.

"At Horseshoe Solar in Rush, families are living with another consequence of a project approved by ORES. Drilling punctured an aquifer, and families who rely on spring water lost their regular water supply. They tell me they are still waiting for the company to follow through on its commitment to provide a permanent alternative. ORES makes the siting decisions, but local families live with the consequences.

"Good farmland and forest are being lost to meet renewable energy goals that continue to be pushed by NYC activists and embraced by the majority party controlling our state. Meanwhile, New Yorkers pay the third-highest electricity rates in the nation. We cannot keep taking decision-making away from our towns, losing good farmland and forest, and leaving families to deal with the consequences. Senate Republicans have put forward a balanced energy plan that restores local decision-making, protects our environment, and puts affordability and reliability first.”

Walczyk said, “New Yorkers are paying some of the highest energy costs in the country, and the answer is not more mandates that make reliable power harder and more expensive to produce. We need to increase reliable generation, upgrade the infrastructure we already have, and use every available energy source. Follow the math. Produce more power. Lower the cost.”

The roundtable discussions hosted by Senate members are intended to offer overburdened New Yorkers an opportunity to discuss a path to make New York more affordable with a variety of local stakeholders contributing to the energy conversation.