All 5 NY Department of Public Service Siting Board (SB) members had alternates take their place for today’s hearing on Alle-Catt Wind. Not one actual sitting SB member was present. It was evident immediately that the hearing was nothing more than political theater. It was decided before today’s hearing that the SB would deny Cattaraugus County and the Coalition of Concerned Citizens a re-hearing on the nighttime noise issue with the Alle-Catt Wind turbines. When each alternate was given a chance to weigh in on the record, all five were prepped and at the ready to say, “no questions and no comment.” Each one did as they had been diligently instructed. All five avoided eye contact with me at the back of the room. You could feel the shame wafting off some of them. These bureaucrats in Albany, NY are making decisions about rural towns and counties they’ll never step foot in. And your tax dollars are going to salaries for people who can’t show up to their own SB hearings. Something needs to change.

They are proposing cutting down 725 ACRES of forest for Town Line Solar across the Towns of Thompson and Forestburgh in Sullivan County, New York. I don't think I've ever seen this much proposed forest-clearing for an ORES solar project. And I've seen some pretty messed up cases of 200-300 acres of forest felled for a form of energy in our climate that will only convert at 12-15% of its annual potential. Remember that 1 acre = roughly the size of a football field. They want to cut down 725 acres of forest. There's a lot of money in this project for the logger, which, interestingly enough, the current ORES Executive Director, Jason Zehr, has family business ties to state logging contracts. When you consider that there are, on average, 614 live trees per forested acre in Upstate NY, that means this solar complex would result in the felling of 445,000 live trees. For those who need a 7th grade science reminder, trees lower localized temperatures through transpiration. Trees are also an important part of mitigating "climate change" by removing CO₂ from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and storing carbon in trunks, roots, other vegetation, dead organic matter, and forest soils. This has never been about "saving the climate" or improving the environment. It's entirely about money and control.