Power plant developers reject longer comment period
TOWN OF ULSTER, N.Y. » Developers have turned down a request from the Town Board to extend the comment period for their proposed 20-megawatt electric generating plant off Frank Sottile Boulevard.
The denial of an extra 60 days to develop a plan for environmental review of the proposal was announced Thursday during a Town Board meeting.
“They exercised their rights under the State Environmental Quality Review Act to say no,” town Supervisor James Quigley said. “We have until [March 23] to take comments, and then there’ll be an intense period of analyzing the comments and putting together the revised scoping document.”
The Town Board will have an April 2 deadline to incorporate the comments into the final document that guides the application process. However, Quigley noted there is a section of state law that will allow concerns to be addressed if someone finds it was not provided during the comment period.
In a March 7 letter from the attorney for project developer Lincoln Park DG LLC, town officials were told the public has had enough time to review details of the scoping document. They contend having the document on the town website since Feb. 1, conducting a public information session on Feb. 22 and holding a “brainstorming session” on March 4 provided ample opportunity to collect information needed for a final document.
“The public will still have many opportunities to comment on this project as it works its way through the approval process [conducted by] the Town Board and the Planning Board,” attorney Richard Olson wrote.
Lincoln Park DG LLC has proposed to use about 3 acres of a 122-acre site, which consists of three parcels owned by Kingston Landing LLC and extend from Miron Lane to state Route 32.
Project sponsor Glide Path says the station would provide backup electricity in the event of power outages and be able to put electricity into the grid during period of peak demand. The proposal calls for two 10-megawatt generators that use a combination of natural gas and lithium ion batteries to generate and store energy.
Among opponents to the project at Thursday’s meeting was town resident Dan Furman, who said town officials are too supportive of the proposed project and have misunderstood residents who have spoken against board members’ handling of the application.
“We’re not against industry,” he said. “We’re not against revenue. We are against 80-foot-tall smokestacks being built in our backyard. We’re against 50,000 gallons of diesel being stored right near our homes. We’re against generators coming on at 4 in the morning and running for three or four hours, and I think any reasonable person would be against these things.”