Pictured are two offshore wind turbines constructed off the coast of Virginia Beach, Va., in 2020. The feasibility of placing similar turbines in the Great Lakes is being studied by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. AP file photo

State Sen. George Borrello is calling for more voices to be involved in a feasibility study to determine if wind turbines should be built on Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.

Speaking during a recent joint legislative budget hearing to Doreen Harris, president and CEO of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, the Sunset Bay Republican renewed his questioning of the study. Originally slated to be finished by the end of 2021, Harris now expects the study to be delivered to the state Public Service Commission some time this summer.

“We have been hard at work advancing the study that was actually required by Public Service Commission order in 2020,” Harris said. “We anticipate actually delivering that study over the summer to the commission, to the public, for consideration according to the schedule laid out in the order. We have been hard at work looking at the resource from multiple factors. … It’s an initial screening of the potential that it may provide. As part of it we have had a number of public meetings and have engaged with a number of stakeholders one on one. I’d be happy to engage with you directly if you have specific questions. But I would say the level of engagement has been extensive throughout the year. I personally am looking forward to the study’s findings as well as any next steps that may be coming.”

In October 2020, NYSERDA was instructed to conduct a feasibility study of Great Lakes wind energy to consider the environmental, maritime, economic and social issues as well as market barriers and costs of developing wind in the Great Lakes, all as part of implementing the state’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act goals. The study comes with a price tag of $1 million and is to consider existing and emerging technologies for fixed and floating turbines, including icing considerations unique to the Great Lakes, new technology development timelines, geospatial conditions, resource assessment, regulatory processes, permitting requirements and risks, potential conflicts, costs and economic opportunities, electrical infrastructure, and overall cost-reduction pathways.

Borrello said he has participated in the public hearings but has concerns about the composition of consultants on the study. He noted there are engineering companies involved that could profit if off-shore wind turbines are built on the Great Lakes but noted the list of consultants doesn’t include include hydrology experts, waterfowl experts, Great Lakes ecology experts or fishery experts.

“I’d like to see a list of those consultants because nobody on the list of people that appears in the study are actually anything other than experts on green energy,” Borrello said. “That is very troubling. They obviously have, I would say, a slanted view of what the outcome of this should be.”

Harris responded the study itself is dealing with the experts Borrello is calling to have included. The study comes with a price tag of $1 million and is to consider existing and emerging technologies for fixed and floating turbines, including icing considerations unique to the Great Lakes, new technology development timelines, geospatial conditions, resource assessment, regulatory processes, permitting requirements and risks, potential conflicts, costs and economic opportunities, electrical infrastructure, and overall cost-reduction pathways.

“I totally agree,” Harris said. “This study is comprehensive in the sense that it is evaluating environmental, maritime, economic and social issues as well as economic opportunity and of course the grid opportunity as well. We have a series of consultants that are working with us, including those that are experts in the fields you had identified, and I want you to know when we think about the resource we are doing so comprehensively.”

Borrello introduced legislation (S.6314/A.7756) to ban wind turbines on New York’s freshwater lakes in part because the state is targeting upstate New York land to place turbines and solar panels. In addition to his concerns about what could happen to upstate’s lakes and farmland, Borrello told Harris the region’s manufacturing history is another reason to shy away from placing wind turbines on Lake Erie.

“Let me also say we don’t know what’s at the bottom of Lake Erie, but we know it’s nothing good and it’s been covered up,” Borrello said. “Our industrial past, the fact that Lake Erie was declared a dead lake in the 1970s because of the toxic waste that was dumped into it for decades, the last thing I think we need to do is dig up the bottom of that lake and release those toxins back into the drinking water of 11 million people. The fact that you have people that are essentially only (in favor) of this project on this study is very troubling and I would seriously ask you to strongly consider changing out some of these folks so we get a more balanced approach.”