On 10/11/23, FHMNA President Dave Buzanoski emailed the following to Doug Brown (Falmouth Select Board SouthCoast Liaison) with copies to the Falmouth Select Board Chair Nancy Taylor, Vice-Chair Scott Zylinski, the Town Manager and the rest of the Select Board.
As you are no doubt aware there has been a flurry of activity lately with respect to offshore wind, such as: the termination of PPA’s by a number of developers, legal challenges by various entities all along the East coast (e.g. recently, Nantucket and Rhode Island), and MA entering into a regional collaborative MOU with CT and RI to share power generating projects, etc.
More recently, while not directly associated with SouthCoast Wind, the Town of Barnstable has on Oct.3rd issued a letter of commentary (opposition) to the MA / Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs on the Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) filed by Commonwealth Wind (Dowses Beach cable landing). A copy of the Barnstable letter is herewith attached.
Please also note, the Barnstable Town Council voted on last Thursday night to halt the granting of Article 97 easements at Craigville Beach for the Park City Wind (PCW) project – and that Avangrid last week terminated its duly – executed PPAs with the Connecticut utility the takers of the PCW power. As you know, Avangrid has previously defaulted on its Commonwealth WInd PPAs with MA utilities.
While these Barnstable projects are not identical to SouthCoast Wind’s project in Falmouth, undeniably the similarities are many. Most obviously all the projects impose a significant impact on densely populated residential, recreational, open space, and environmentally sensitive areas. We feel that Barnstable’s position is warranted and we would encourage Falmouth to take a similar strong stand against SouthCoast Wind.
Respectfully submitted,
David Buzanoski, President
Falmouth Heights – Maravista Neighborhood Association