The Madison County Industrial Development Agency (IDA) Wednesday voted to reject the application for $30 million in tax breaks for the Hoffman Falls wind project in Madison County.
Rick Bargabos, chair of the Madison County IDA, said Liberty Renewables has started construction on the wind farm without the tax benefits. He went on to say that the company also indicated in a letter that it intends to proceed with the project "at the expense of the host community agreements that they entered into, or agreed to enter into with the affected townships."
"They failed to execute those agreements. It was one of the stipulations that we had moving forward with the public hearing," said Bargabos. "They represented to us that they did have those agreements in place and come to find out they didn't ... So, our position there was that the application really wasn't complete until those agreements were in place."
The affected towns include Eaton, Nelson, Fenner, and Smithfield.
"They kinda got the cart before the horse there, which I think was intentional ... they really wanted to use those host community agreements as leverage to get the towns to agree to support a PILOT," he added.
A PILOT is a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes.
Rob Panasci, a partner in the Troy law firm Young / Sommer LLC, defended Liberty Renewables during the IDA meeting..
"I personally take offense [to this claim] that we were being disingenuous because I don't believe that to be the case," Panasci told the IDA board.
In a statement forwarded to WRVO Public Media, Meg Lee, director of development for Liberty Renewables, said: "While we are disappointed that our Host Towns won't receive PILOT payments from the project, we are moving forward with construction and ensuring that the community still experiences meaningful and significant long-term benefits."
Those benefits include $1 million in savings on electric bills for eligible households over 10 years, along with at least $1 million in grant funding over 20 years for charitable projects, programs, and initiatives that directly benefit the four towns. In addition, annual lease revenue for 50 local families, landowners, and farmers; more than 70 construction jobs and local long-term operations positions; ongoing for local businesses and contractors; and support for local student scholarships and historic preservation projects," Liberty Renewables said.
Hoffman Falls is one of three wind projects that the firm is developing, with the other two in Cayuga and Cattaraugus counties. Each features 18 or 19 wind turbines, aiming to create 109.8 megawatts of power when fully operating.
In speaking with WRVO Public Media following the meeting, Bargabos explained the following about project siting:
"At one time, Madison County ... residents and the county government and the town governments were very much in support of renewable-energy projects, specifically the wind mills because they could fit in with the agriculture ... a project this size was only going to take up 30 or 33 acres of land -- some of it was in the woodlands ... a good portion of it was in agricultural land, so you could still farm around it... For appropriately sited wind mills, we can provide that support in the county and the townships ... The state, a few years ago, took away home rule in reviewing and siting these large-scale wind projects — renewable-energy projects in general — so there's no local input. Without local input, how could you determine that they're appropriately sited? I think that's part of the reason why these townships ... are so up in arms about it, so opposed to it because they really didn't have a say in where they'd be placed," he said.
Nowadays, large renewable energy projects (25MW and above) are subject to state-level preemption and fast-tracking by the Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES).
ORES was established in 2021 in a "mad dash" to hit the 70 percent renewable-energy target by 2030 under the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, per the website of Southern Hills Wind Watch, a nonprofit based in Tully that has a mission to "safeguard our area from the potential safety, environmental, and health risks posed by industrial wind turbine projects."
