State Plan Takes Falmouth Home Rule For Offshore Wind

FALMOUTH SELECT BOARD AGENDA MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2024

6:40 PM
"3. Discuss and vote to approve a letter to the Commission on Energy Infrastructure Siting and Permitting opposing the removal of local control and regional oversight for the siting of renewable energy facilities"
Truncated Source Link to meeting notice:
https://www.falmouthma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_03112024-14895

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In Falmouth on June 8, 2022, an offshore wind company proposed placing high voltage direct current cables and a six-acre high voltage direct current converter station. There have been no health or noise studies conducted.

Falmouth, Massachusetts has wind energy site health and safety zoning bylaws approved by town meeting
Because of the height, noise, radio frequencies, containment systems and drinking water environmental contamination issues the Falmouth local bylaws stand against the project and local home rule.

The alternative to placing an industrial project in a community with a retirement, vacation and boating destination is run their cables by ocean to the large cities where the power will be used.
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Quotes from Wind Wise Massachusetts:

Shades of WESRA, the Wind Energy Siting Reform Act, in push to expedite siting?

The Governor’s Commission on Energy Infrastructure Siting and Permitting asked for comments by March 1 but will accept them through March 15, 2024.

BEATING DOWN THE LITTLE FOLKS TO GET YOUR WAY IS NOT GOOD POLITICS
To members of the Governor’s Commission on Energy Infrastructure Siting and Permitting:

Your plan to strip local control over the siting and permitting of renewable energy facilities was tried once before and failed. For years, Governor Deval Patrick pushed the Wind Energy Siting Reform Act, which was fiercely opposed by voters across the state and eventually scuttled.
States like New York and Vermont, and others around the country, have found that similar efforts lead to angry opposition, and hostility toward clean energy development generally.

By contrast, when communities are offered incentives that residents think are fair, they welcome development projects. Fairness can translate into surprisingly reasonable dollar amounts. This is especially true in small rural communities desperate for revenues.

If you want to encourage the widespread buildout of clean energy facilities and infrastructure, then proffer rewards instead of wielding punishments. Do not strip municipalities of local control over the siting and permitting of renewable energy proposals.

Our state has a proud history of home rule. Municipal officials take seriously their responsibilities to apply local and state laws and regulations to the review of development projects. They generally apply those fairly, they abide by timelines built into those statutes, and they recognize that their regulatory role is to permit development while safeguarding public health and safety. As citizens, based upon what I have seen, they wholeheartedly support the expansion of clean energy. There is no reason to eliminate local control in order to accelerate the buildout of renewable energy facilities.

There is no need for a trade-off. Both can co-exist.

Truncated Source Link to Wind Wise Massachusetts :

https://windwisema.org/2024/03/01/end-run-past-local-control-bad-for-climate/