It's a good time to stir up greater public awareness of a New York State governmental agency called ORES- New York's Office of Renewable Energy Siting and Electric Transmission.
Sounds like another harmless government bureaucracy, right?
Unfortunately, the agency appears to be conducting its affairs in the exact opposite manner- and it has the residents of numerous upstate NY towns fighting for their sovereignty and way of life.
ORES was clandestinely established on the front end of the COVID pandemic in 2020 with a mandate to "streamline the permitting of large-scale renewable energy projects."
Since then, the agency has behaved more like a rogue regulator aggressively forcing a harmful agenda rather than acting as a neutral and transparent agency that first protects the rights and interests of New York State residents.
While it's fair to say that ORES hasn't simply acted as a total rubber stamp for wind & solar farm permit approvals- that would really generate more widespread attention & dissent than ORES would likely prefer- it does have its own administrative review process that winds up serving as a sort of a Rorschach test that gauges how much support or lack thereof any project has with local residents.
Several foreign-owned companies are among those pushing for permits across the state.
For some of the projects that have come under its review, ORES's "streamlining" of permitting has avoided completing all aspects of what would otherwise constitute a rigorous environmental due diligence that comprehensively scrutinizes all environmental impacts of a project.
ORES has apparently curtailed the compilation of necessary environmental due diligence alongside the New York Department of Public Service (DPS) which critics contend have unlawfully used redactions on environmental documents in ORES dockets that are necessary to determine the true environmental impacts of projects.
Without comprehensive data from environmental reviews that determine the impacts on habitats, animals, and migration, the public is kept in the dark about the long-term impacts of these projects that are aggressively pushing "green" energy projects that ironically are destructive to environmental ecosystems and destroy large expanses of formerly pristine land.
To date, ORES has shown that it has no qualms about violating local Home Rule or landowners' constitutional rights because its absolute directive is to fast-track the permitting of greater numbers of wind & solar farms- regardless of the environmental costs and permanent loss of pristine lands.
If enough local residents were not paying attention to these permit applications, ORES would likely hit the proverbial accelerator and either fast-track or bypass obtaining stringent environmental/land use reviews and force industrial-scale wind and solar projects on to prime farmland and pristine lands with high ecological value.
Thankfully, residents in towns such as Copake, Cambria & Prattsburgh are pushing back against these solar & wind projects and bringing these matters to court. Local rancher and head of the American Land Rescue Fund Alexandra Fasulo is raising public awareness and spearheading lawsuits relating to multiple ORES-related permit applications.
ORES is apparently conducting its affairs as a rogue regulator under New York State's ultimately destructive 2030 agenda which mandates that 70% of New York's electrical power should be derived from renewable energy systems within three years- hence the "fast-tracked" push for so many wind and solar farms across upstate.
Given its shady origins and highly questionable agenda, ORES should be repealed and disbanded- along with the 70% electric power from renewables by 2030 mandate- but that would take a political sea change in New York.
Authority over major energy projects must be returned to a transparent process that respects local governments and protects property owners and farmers who live with the consequences of the projects long after developers have moved on.
The Northeast Independent will be keeping an eye on the ORES-related cases & dockets that are now making their way through the New York judicial system- stay tuned!
