June 11, 2012
Hon. Jaclyn A. Brilling
New York State Public Service
Commission
Empire State Plaza
Agency Building 3
Albany, NY 12223-1350
Dear Ms. Brilling,
New York State recently enacted
legislation known as the Power NY Act of 2011 and said
legislation amended the public
service law by adding a new Article X, which establishes a
New York State Board of
Electrical Generation Siting Board.
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.
As a home rule state, New York's
local municipalities, by virtue of decisions made by locallyelected
representatives, should
ultimately decide whether such development is in their
residents' best interests.
The Power 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.
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".
The new law further states that "no
municipality may require any approval, consent, permit,
certificate or other condition for the construction
or operation" of such facility.
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.
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. 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.
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.
The Town of Lyme 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.
The people of the Town of Lyme,
with the assistance of the Jefferson County Planning
Department have worked for years
to produce a fact based zoning law that protects the
health, welfare, and safety of
the citizens of our community. This law is based on a
Comprehensive Plan done jointly
with the Village of Chaumont Planning Board, again with
help from Jefferson County
Planning, along with a great deal of community input. Although I
am sure everyone thinks their own
community is unique, our geography is indeed unusual
in that we have a very narrow
town with a great deal of waterfront. The waterfront land
makes up the majority of our tax
base and there is a serious concern over loss of property
value if the area is
industrialized. Our concern is not solely for waterfront residents, even a
small loss in home value would be
devastating to the many homeowners scattered
throughout the town. Our
Comprehensive Plan calls for development that preserves or
enhances the natural, historic,
and scenic qualities of the town, and we feel that we, the
people of the town are the best
judges of how to develop our town.
Respectfully,
Scott G. Aubertine
Town of Lyme Supervisor
PO Box 66
12175 NYS Rte. 12 E
Chaumont, NY 13622
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