ENDWELL, NY (WSKG) — A state panel denied opponents’ request for a rehearing on the approval of the High Bridge Wind Farm in Guilford on Thursday.
The New York State Board on Electric Generation Siting and the Environment unanimously voted to adopt the draft motion penned by Chief Administrative Law Judge Dakin Lecakes, in which he denied the request to reconsider the Certificate of Environmental Compatibility granted to the Chenango County wind farm in March.
The move was made by the Guilford Coalition of Non-Participating Residents(GCNR), a group that has organized opposition to the project since 2019.
"As discussed in the draft order before you,” Lecakes told the Siting Board, “GCNR's petition does not establish any error of law or fact to support its rehearing request."
GCNR alleged the siting board did not properly consider several aspects of the construction plan, including groundwater and aesthetic impacts as well as the project’s overall public benefit.
GCNR is represented by the Rochester-based law firm the Zoghlin Group, which is currently suing the state’s Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES) over a separate project in Columbia County. ORES was established earlier this year to streamline the former Article 10 process for approving large-scale renewable energy projects like High Bridge.
The High Bridge Wind Farm is expected to contribute 100 megawatts of power at peak load to the electrical grid when finished. Northland Power is constructing the High Bridge project as well as the Bluestone Wind Farm in eastern Broome County.
Neither attorneys for the Zoghlin Group nor representatives of Northland Power returned requests for comment Thursday.