Editorial: Concentrated Power Wind-Siting Reform Bills Need Major Revisions
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
By: Patty Dineen

Cape Cod Times 7/20/10

Cape Cod Times: 7/20/10 Editorial-Concentrated power Wind-siting reform bills need major revisions

July 20, 2010 2:00 AM

In general, we have long supported home rule, the right of local citizens and local boards to determine a community's best interests and establish their own rules and regulations.

At the same time, we recognize the need for a higher authority to negotiate a solution when the desires of a local community conflict with the needs of the greater region or state. That's why we have Chapter 40B, the state law that allows developers to overcome local zoning regulations to build affordable housing. That's why we have the Energy Facilities Siting Board, which allows the construction of a needed public utility project even if there is local opposition.

Now it appears the state will soon set up another mechanism that would encourage development of wind farms, even if local boards object.

The Wind Energy Siting Reform Act, S.2260, was passed by the Senate on Feb. 4, and the House version, H.4687, was approved last Wednesday.

The two versions must now be reconciled.

While we support the need for more renewable energy projects in Massachusetts, the final bill needs major improvements.

According to Green Berkshires, a nonprofit environmental group founded in 2004 by residents in western Massachusetts, the bills represent "a radical and unprecedented assault on the fundamental rights of communities to control industrial development within their borders, on the environmental laws that our legislative body has enacted over the years ... and on the long-established rights of municipalities and our constituents to appeal decisions adverse to their interests through the court system."

Both bills concentrate power over wind power projects in a single agency, the state Division of Green Communities, which reports to the state secretary of Energy and Environment. Today, Secretary Ian Bowles is nothing less than a cheerleader for the wind power industry.

"At least two regional planning agencies have expressed their concerns with the act, along with a number of select boards and environmental and sportsmen's groups," according to Green Berkshires.

House Speaker Robert DeLeo said the House bill allows communities to form a single board to review wind projects.

"Regardless of any permits that are issued at the state or federal level, ... no wind energy project would be built without local approval," he said.

The bill dictates that the Energy Facilities Siting Board has no authority to override a decision by a local board that denies a permit for a wind energy project, DeLeo said in a press release. "Only a court can overturn a decision by a local board that has denied a permit," he said.

But opponents claim that the act authorizes the state Division of Green Communities to approve wind projects regardless of local decisions. "And with artful language it appears to eliminate rights of appeal by municipalities and most rights by other parties," according to the website of Green Berkshires.

"If we give this package of special privileges to the wind industry, how many other industries will seek to concentrate all power for decisions in a single executive branch agency, and strip everyone else of traditional powers of appeal?"

According to opponents, the wind developer needs only a written decision — not an approval — from the local wind energy permitting board before proceeding to the Energy Facilities Siting Board.

Under the bill, local citizens and groups are also handcuffed when it comes to the appeal process.

So while we support of goal of developing more wind energy projects, neither the House nor the Senate has found the best way to do that.