A wise person once counseled me to not ascribe to malice what can just as easily be ascribed to ignorance.

This advice certainly applies to the recent statements by certain Republican candidates for political office in New York State.

There is no doubt that the Town Line Solar and storage project in Sullivan County is a matter of great concern due to its potential impact on the environment and local community.

However, the comments by certain candidates describing this proposal as a taking of land by the Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES) are a gross misrepresentation of ORES, its mission, function and authority.

When a project comes to ORES, a property owner has already made an agreement with a renewable energy developer to sell or lease that land to the developer with the intention to build a utility-scale renewable-energy project. ORES’s job is to evaluate that proposal for environmental impacts, alignment with a municipality’s zoning laws, impacts on the community and a host of other concerns. ORES has no authority to take land.

Malice, or ignorance? 

Stephen Stuart, CPHT, CPHC
Narrowsburg, NY
[Ed. note: Stephen Stuart covers sustainability and related issues at the local and state level for the River Reporter.]