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Arguing Before Wind Farm Talks Even Begin

Thu, 10/03/2019 - 14:03

Orsted U.S. Offshore Wind and Eversource, which jointly plan to construct and operate the South Fork Wind Farm some 35 miles off Montauk, filed notice with the New York State Public Service Commission last week to begin settlement negotiations in the P.S.C.’s Article VII review of its application to install the wind farm’s export cable in state waters and on a subterranean path to a Long Island Power Authority substation in East Hampton. But local elected officials are pushing back on the location at which negotiations are to take place.

Deepwater Wind South Fork L.L.C., the entity under which the wind farm’s developers plan to construct and operate the wind farm, applied to the P.S.C. for a Certificate of Environmental Compatibility and Public Need in September 2018, a requirement in order to install the cable along the approximately 3.5 miles from the state’s territorial waters boundary to landfall and approximately 4.1 miles from the landing site — Orsted and Eversource have identified the ocean beach at the end of Beach Lane in Wainscott as the preferred location — to the LIPA substation near Cove Hollow Road.

An initial settlement meeting is scheduled for Tuesday at noon at the Department of Public Service in Albany. “At this time, the applicant anticipates settlement of all issues relating to the issuance of the Certificate of Environmental Compatibility and Public Need,” reads a Sept. 24 letter from the developers’ legal counsel to Kathleen Burgess, secretary to the commission, “with an initial focus on the cable landing site and terrestrial cable routing.”

The settlement process is common in Article VII reviews of electric transmission facilities, an Orsted U.S. Offshore Wind spokeswoman said last week, one that allows parties to discuss the application in a less formal setting than litigation. Under P.S.C. regulations, settlement discussions are confidential.

But a statement issued jointly by East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc, Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., and State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle on Monday criticized the move to hold settlement negotiations in Albany, calling instead for the proceedings to be held in East Hampton.

In a letter to the P.S.C., Orsted U.S. Offshore Wind, and Eversource, the three officials called the proposed wind farm “the source of much conflict and controversy” in East Hampton and across the East End. “Specifically, the potential ocean-based impacts to the commercial fishing industry from the project and land-based impacts from the location of the transmission cable have generated serious environmental and community concerns.”

Holding negotiations more than 250 miles from the community most affected by the proposed project “may be convenient for the Public Service Commission and the attorneys and lobbyists for the applicant,” the officials wrote, but “it is a hardship for locally based parties to this proceeding who wish to personally attend this meeting. We respectfully request that all proceedings, including settlement meetings, be held in the Town of East Hampton, where the project is to be located and where public interest and potential impacts are the greatest.”

James Denn, the commission’s public information officer, said in an email on Tuesday that the request “will be reviewed and a response will be forthcoming.”

The commission held two information sessions on the South Fork Wind Farm at the Emergency Services Building in East Hampton Village in June, and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority recently concluded seven public open house events on offshore wind, including one in Southampton last month.

The proposed 15-turbine wind farm has divided the community. Commercial fishermen are almost uniformly opposed to the project, asserting that it poses a grave danger to their livelihoods. Another group, Win With Wind, was organized by residents including two former town supervisors, Judith Hope and Larry Cantwell. Its members are stalwart supporters of the wind farm.

Many residents of Wainscott, vociferously opposed to the Beach Lane landing site of the export cable, formed an organization called Citizens for the Preservation of Wainscott to advocate another site, such as Hither Hills in Montauk, which has been identified by Orsted U.S. Offshore Wind and Eversource as a potential alternative. That, in turn, spurred Montauk United, a citizens group working on quality-of-life issues in that hamlet, to take a position in support of the Beach Lane landing site.

Last month, Wind With Wind and Montauk United told The Star that they had joined forces to push for the Wainscott site, which is significantly closer to the LIPA substation than Hither Hills.

 

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