NYSDEC now the lead agency in controversial Coeymans offshore wind manufacturing proposal - WRGB
NYSDEC now the lead agency in controversial Coeymans off-shore wind manufacturing proposal | WRGB
COEYMANS, N.Y. (WRGB) — The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation will be taking over as lead agency in the proposed project to build an off-shore wind manufacturing facility in Coeymans. The change in authority was announced
The Coeymans’ Planning Board announced the change in authority during Wednesday’s public hearing on the project. The hearing was a continuation of the first hearing on the project on December 11th.
Carvers Companies is proposing to build the manufacturing facility on industrial and residential land along the Hudson River, north of the Port of Coeymans.
The company is looking to get approval on a site plan and get an area variance, which allows property owners to make a physical change to the property that would typically go against the zoning requirements. Its hope is to build a 515-thousand square foot manufacturing facility to build 400 foot long wind blades.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE; Coeymans locals oppose offshore wind manufacturing growth on residential land
This facility will be built on the industrial land, owned by Holcim, while using the residential land north of it, owned by Powell, as storage for the blades. Using the land for storage allows the company to bypass zoning requirements.
The development site is located north of the Port of Coeymans’ existing industrial port, east of State Route 144, south of Bronk Road and west of the Hudson River.
Clearing residential land for industrial use is something many residents don’t support.
Ashley Redfield lives next to the proposed development site and says the forest that once surrounded her home has been cleared.
“They want to keep pushing industrial into residential land and I want to preface this by saying I'm not oppose to this project, but there needs to be balance and transparency and we haven’t gotten that as residents,” said Redfield.
“Is there going to be a huge industrial project in my backyard in the near future? Is it going to affect my property value, is it going to affect my quality of life?” she added.
She says she’s grateful that the NYSDEC is now stepping in.
Nick Laraway, COO of Carver Companies, offered his reaction with CBS 6’s Briana Supardi, saying the company has worked with the NYSDEC before and they’re excited to work with the agency through the process.
“We know the DEC has considerations that they want to look at on a larger level so I believe the first step of that will be looking at everything we’ve done over the last six months and reviewing all of our work and seeing what they’re opinion is on not just the local but county statewide impact,” said Laraway.
Last week, Carver Companies released its economic analysis of the proposed project, which stated that the offshore wind manufacturing facility is expected to generate $232 million in tax revenue for the town of Coeymans in its first year. It’ll also create thousands of jobs, not only in the town but across the Capital Region.
“I think we worked hard with the stakeholders to take into consideration all the benefits of what could come to the local economy,” said Laraway.
In a letter to the town of Coeymans’ Code Enforcement Officer, Jason Chmielewski, the NYSDEC expressed why it should assume lead agency in the proposed project’s review.
The letter outlined several primary concerns that NYSDEC should fully review under the State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR), including the project’s impact on land, water and air resources and plants and animals.
“The anticipated impacts of the Proposed Action [project] are considered to have statewide
significance since the Proposed Action is proposed to advance offshore wind development for New York State,” stated the letter.
The agency also argued its best fit to be lead agency since it “has had numerous other recent discretionary
approvals for other projects in the vicinity, including at the Port of Coeymans, and is
familiar with such projects to determine potential cumulative impacts.”
Related Knowledge Center: Offshore wind energy
Over the next decade, U.S. offshore wind power is expected to grow from a single 30-megawatt wind farm off Rhode Island to more than 2,000 MW of capacity along the Atlantic Seaboard. There are contracts for wind power off the coasts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated the United States has over 4,000 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind potential, enough to power the country four times over.
The growth in part being spurred by state solicitations, including in New York, where then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) set a commitment of 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2035, and in Connecticut, where in June 2021, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed legislation authorizing the construction of 2,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030.
The offshore development is also being driven by an investment tax credit set to end in December 2019 and is equal to 12 percent of expenditures. U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) have introduced a bill to extend the tax credit for up to eight years.
The Interior Department has held eight competitive lease sales that resulted in 15 offshore wind leases over 1.7 million acres that has the potential for 21 GW of capacity. In February 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management completed a bidding process that realized $4.37 billion for 488,000 acres across six lease areas in federal waters off New York and New Jersey.
Projects have also been proposed off the Southeast coast, off California and Hawaii, and for the Great Lakes.