PRESS RELEASE:
October 22, 2011
Following the lead of other Counties and Towns, on October 6, 2011, the Ontario County Board of Supervisors passed a Resolution opposing the Power NY Act of 2011.
Also, during the regular scheduled monthly meeting, held on Monday, October 17, the Hopkinton Town Board, introduced correspondence from COAX regarding the request for a resolution opposing Article X. With little discussion, the Board voted unanimously to pass the resolution. The resolution will read the same as the Town of Hammond resolution. Both towns reside in St. Lawrence County.
A copy of the Ontario County resolution opposing Article X is shown below.
Ontario County Board of Supervisors
Canandaigua, New York 14424
Supervisor Luckern offered the following resolution and moved its adoption:
RESOLUTION NO. 600 – 2011
RESOLUTION OPPOSING THE POWER OF NY ACT OF 2011
WHEREAS, New York State recently enacted legislation known as the Power of NY Act of 2011; and
WHEREAS, Said legislation amended the public service law by adding a new article 10, which establishes a New York State Board of Electrical Generation Siting and the Environment; and
WHEREAS, Said Board will have the authority to permit the siting of electrical generating facilities in the State which have a nameplate generating capacity of twenty-five thousand kilowatts or more; and
WHEREAS, Previously, while various state agencies had regulatory oversight for such facilities, as a home rule state, New York’s local municipalities, by virtue of decisions made by locally-elected representatives, could ultimately decide whether such development was in their residents’ best interests; and
WHEREAS, The Power of NY Act of 2011 removes said decision making from local municipalities, and puts that authority into the hands of a bureaucratic State board which will have nominal representation from affected communities, and even that representation cannot be from
elected representatives of those communities; and
WHEREAS, The new Board will have the authority to ignore “any local ordinance, law…or any local standard or requirement…if it finds that…such is unreasonably burdensome…on ratepayers whether located inside or outside of such municipality”; and
WHEREAS, The new law further states that “no…municipality…may require any approval, consent, permit, certificate or other condition for the construction of operation” of such facility; and
WHEREAS, While the law provides for the set-aside of funds for pre-hearing research on behalf of the affected communities, said funds are controlled by the Board and will be allocated as it sees fit; and
WHEREAS, The large majority of the Board’s membership will have no connection to the affected communities and will not be directly affected by their decisions; and
WHEREAS, While municipalities may be a party to the siting hearings, so may any individual within 5 miles of the proposed facility’s site, and therefore the municipality itself, which purpose, by law, is to represent the residents who elect its officials, is diminished to the level of each individual within the 5 mile radius, whether or not he/she lives in the affected municipality; and
WHEREAS, Said law follows a disturbing trend in New York State to remove powers from local jurisdictions and therefore from the affected electorate and transfer such powers to a faceless bureaucracy which has no constituency; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the Ontario County Board of Supervisors opposes, protests, and expresses its deep disappointment and concern over the establishment of said siting Board and of the enactment of the Power NY Act of 2011; and further
RESOLVED, That certified copies of this resolution be sent by the Clerk of this Board to the Finance Department, Senator Michael Nozzolio, Senator Patrick Gallivan, Assemblyman Brian Kolb, Assemblyman Sean Hanna and Governor Andrew Cuomo.
STATE OF NEW YORK }
COUNTY OF ONTARIO}
I do hereby certify that I have compared the preceding with the original thereof, on file in the Office of the Clerk of the Board of Supervisors at Canandaigua, New York, and that the same is a correct transcript therefrom and of the whole of said original; and that said original was duly adopted at a meeting of the Board of Supervisors of Ontario County held at Canandaigua, New York, on the 6th day of October, 2011.
Given under my hand and official seal October 7, 2011 .
Karen R. DeMay Clerk, Board of Supervisors of Ontario County, NY
Sincerely,
Robert E. Aliasso, Jr. – Member COAX
raliasso@twcny.rr.com +1 (315) 771-9753
