“Three years ago…you promised a model project with a good PILOT…tax dollars. That money is nothing. I get that much from Tennessee Gas, Iroquois Gas in a year.
“You came in, you put your hand on my shoulder and said you’d work with us. That all went away when the state got involved. You come in, you divide the town, and then you go back home.”
John Leavitt
Carlisle

“Of course [it’s state over-reach]. We’ve lost already. This is just a formality to get to the end result.”
Earlin Rosa
Seward

Two years after the State Public Service Commission green-lighted East Point Energy’s plans for a 50-megawatt solar project in the Town of Sharon, the Carlisle and Seward Planning Boards have begun holding hearings on a 20-MW project that needs approval from both towns.
Sharon’s project was subject to state Article 10 review, intended to streamline the permitting process for large-scale wind and solar.
Article 10 has been replaced by the even more streamlined 94-c, approved in April 2020 to fast-track even smaller projects through the Office of Rewewable Energy Siting, also created in 2020.
Under 94-c, projects 25-MW or more are subject to ORES review.
Those in the 20-25-MW range, like Rock District Solar in Carlisle and Seward, can opt into 94-c—or seek local review and approval.
Legal experts have said they believe developers can switch mid-stream, from local review to 94-c; it’s unclear whether they could file for 94-c permitting if a project is denied at the local level.
But attorney Terresa Baker, who’s been hired to help the Planning Boards through the process, told the crowd in Carlisle in January that if Cypress Creek had taken its project to ORES, it would have already been approved.
“You have to decide whether you’d rather have it reviewed here or by the state,” she said.
Cypress Creek Renewables’ Rock District Solar is going the local approval route in Carlisle and Seward, and the hearings remain open; February 14, 7pm, in Carlisle, and February 21, 7pm in Seward.
As of February 1, 17 94-c projects have been approved by ORES--one for wind in Orleans County and one that includes a 83-MW battery storage facility in Livingston County.
The permitting process requires ORES to “consider any applicable law when making a determination.”
It also requires the Public Service Commission to “hold a proceeding to determine how best to provide communities with a compensatory benefit…such as a discount or credit on utility bills.”
But Schoharie County is still waiting on a lawsuit filed last March challenging the state’s then-new assessment model for solar and wind, changes that would cut local property tax revenues by as much as 85 percent.
In December, a judge denied the state’s efforts to dismiss the challenge, leaving one issue on the table: whether the local plantiffs have “standing,” and would be harmed by the new tax model.
Judge Julian Schreibman gave the state until the end of December to respond, then the petitioners agreed to a 30-day extension, giving the state until the end of January.
The judge’s ruling on standing could take weeks or even months, said Blenheim Supervisor Don Airey, chair of the Energy Committee.