Hartland weighs limited options on solar

Jul. 15—Issues involving the impending solar development from EDF Renewables were brought up again in the Town of Hartland on Thursday. This was both at the standard town board meeting which was held in the evening, and also at a special combined meeting which occurred earlier that day between the town, zoning and planning boards.

At the combined meeting, Attorney George Van Nest and Engineer Andrew Reilly from the firm Wendel met with the members of town government and discussed issues involving the project.

Earlier in the week, an informational session was held at the Hartland Fire Hall regarding the same project, which was followed by public input. Many of the issues of contention that residents raised were surrounding New York state law, Section 94C which aims to accelerate the state's expansion to renewable energy, and ultimately makes opposition to related developments more difficult.

Hartland Supervisor Ross Annable reiterated the point that negotiating with EDF is the ideal decision at this point as the town will be able to retain the most power it can as the project moves forward.

"We have no control over 94C with this project," said Annable. "ORES has already set standards for zoning laws. What we've determined is that we want to work with EDF to try to mitigate certain aspects of the project, and they have indicated that they are willing to do that."

While many of the same points were raised by the public compared to what was brought up at the Tuesday session, new information had come to light regarding how EDF was recently nationalized by the French government. EDF Renewables is based out of France.

Regardless of this change, Annable said that he didn't feel that this development would change anything in the process, as EDF would still be required to adhere to state and federal law if they are to operate in New York state. He did however say that EDF's nationalization would still warrant some kind of review from the town.