by Joanne Scanlon
Notably, Gary Abraham does not appear to understand the urgent need to transition to renewable energy in his opinion piece, “Wind and solar are not the solutions to climate change,” July 26. Instead, Mr. Abraham works with opponents of renewable energy across the state to distract and delay the renewable energy projects that are crucial to address this climate crisis. We need to move quickly to prevent the continuing spiral toward an uninhabitable world.
The Alle-Catt wind farm has been stalled primarily through his efforts. Alle-Catt was approved by the state in June 2020. Even so, Mr. Abraham continues to deluge the siting board with countless letters and petitions to prevent its construction. Without his intervention, this wind farm would be in service today, powering 134,000 homes annually and having a direct impact on climate change.
His concern about the 1,500 acres of mature forest this project will replace does not consider the big picture. There are 16 million acres of forest in the state, so we are talking about just 0.01% of all the forested acres in N.Y. Supplying all the energy needs in the state with solar PV and wind would require about 1%.
