Trees store carbon, but a wind farm produces power. Which is greener?
| Troy, N.Y.
In a pair of small towns outside Binghamton, New York, a battle is raging over competing priorities in the state鈥檚 efforts to mitigate climate change and protect its environment.
A new promises to significantly boost clean energy production in New York, which to generate most of its electricity. But the project comes at the cost of some 313 acres of local forest that currently act as a 鈥渃arbon sink鈥� for emissions. And preserving such forests is also an important piece of the state鈥檚 climate strategy.
Tony Wagner, who owns forest land near the wind farm site, fears the project, known as Bluestone Wind, will degrade the habitats and ecosystems of thousands of acres of contiguous forest. He鈥檚 part of a group of concerned citizens who fought fiercely against the project, but to no avail; the trees started coming down earlier this year.
Why We Wrote This
Setting aside land for renewable energy projects can come at a cost to forest preservation, setting up a clash between competing values and objectives.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a place for wind turbines, but this is the worst possible place for wind turbines,鈥� says Mr. Wagner.听
In some ways, this is a classic case of not-in-my-backyard versus the power of a big-money developer and the exigencies of climate action. But here, some residents are looking beyond concerns about noise and aesthetics, and asking a thorny question: Is it worth trading hundreds of acres of forest land for a couple of dozen wind turbines?听
The conflict raises larger questions about how states like New York, which aims to generate 70% of its energy from renewables by 2030, will balance these competing environmental priorities when considering new clean energy projects.
Wind and solar farms face opposition across the country where similar clashes between competing environmental priorities, along with NIMBY complaints, are playing out. A new study by counted at least 100 local ordinances in 31 states that block or restrict renewable energy projects.听
鈥淭here鈥檚 a climate crisis and there鈥檚 a biodiversity crisis, and smart renewable energy development can answer both,鈥� says Nathan Cummins, who directs the Great Plains Renewable Energy Strategy at The Nature Conservancy.
His work focuses mostly in the central United States听鈥� where the 听are located听鈥� and he wasn鈥檛 able to speak about Bluestone Wind directly. But he said there are ways to add clean energy to areas that have already been developed to avoid most, if not all, negative impacts to the environment. Moreover, offshore wind farms, though they , are showing a lot of promise.
鈥淭here鈥檚 enough low-impact land out there that you don鈥檛 need to make the trade-offs,鈥� Mr. Cummins says.
Small towns, big controversy
Chris Stanton, the lead developer of the Bluestone Wind project, first approached the towns of Sanford and Windsor in 2016 with a plan to construct dozens of wind turbines along mountain ridgelines.听听
鈥淲hat we found early on is that we had a very receptive community,鈥� says Mr. Stanton, project development manager for Northland Power, the Canadian company that is building Bluestone Wind.
The proposal was particularly well received, he said, by landowners who stood to benefit financially from leasing small plots where the wind turbines will stand. One is Sanford鈥檚 last surviving dairy farmer, who credits the leasing income for keeping him in business. The same goes for a Methodist youth camp in the area that is leasing land.
鈥淎 lot of the landowners who are participating in the project tend to rely on their land for income,鈥� Mr. Stanton says.
Dewey Decker, Sanford town supervisor, paints a much more complicated picture; many of the town鈥檚 2,000 residents, especially those who won鈥檛 see direct financial benefits, remain听skeptical. Sanford is, however, annually from Bluestone Wind, and the project will create 150 temporary construction jobs.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of controversy; there鈥檚 no question about that. This has been a real struggle; this has been a four year struggle, if you want to know the truth,鈥� Mr. Decker says.
Perhaps the loudest group of opponents is the effort led by Mr. Wagner and others in Broome County.听
Mr. Wagner lives in Maine, but his family owns a 310-acre plot just south of the wind farm site. This slice of forest was handed down from his grandparents, and he wants it to eventually pass to his grandchildren. The property is a that follows sustainable harvesting practices aimed at preserving the long-term health of the forest and its wildlife.
Mr. Wagner says he probably won鈥檛 even be able to see from his property, even if he did live here. He got involved in the campaign to help his neighbors protect an environment they hold dear.
鈥淲e hate to see the land being destroyed,鈥� he said.
Thorny trade-offs
No matter what type of energy a community depends on, there are always trade-offs. Fossil fuels have obvious, well-documented pollution and emissions consequences. Nuclear has until now been a hard sell for a previous meltdowns. Wind and solar, which are now some of the and cleanest options, don鈥檛 guarantee continuous power generation, and have significant impacts on the land.听听
The Bluestone Wind project could produce enough power to supply about 59% of the county鈥檚 households, according to Northland Power. (However, the power generated locally feeds into a regional grid, along with other sources.) Viewed another way, that鈥檚 the equivalent of taking 15,800 cars off the road, Northland estimates.听
Mr. Stanton, the project developer, says that fossil-fuel substitution far outweighs any potential environmental impacts. The developer went through a rigorous state permitting process, including submissions on wildlife protection, natural resources, visual character, and other commonly litigated issues.听
鈥淸The standards] are based in research and science,鈥� he says.
Even when renewable energy projects pass certain standards, they still have environmental impacts, both direct and indirect, says Mr. Cummins of The Nature Conservancy. For example, because wind turbines have to be spread far apart, the towers and their access roads can have the effect of fragmenting animal habitats. And the trees cut down to make room for these developments represent a store of carbon that gets lost.听
A complex puzzle
Concerns about flora and fauna, however, are only one piece of a complex puzzle around where to build wind turbines. Developers also have to consider wind speeds, the ability to plug into the larger electrical grid, and the cost of construction.
In a state like New York, which lacks the high wind speeds of the Great Plains, mountain ridgelines are among the only viable places to build onshore wind farms.
So a project like Bluestone Wind might be the best-case scenario, and some of the impacts can and are being mitigated. But rather than minimizing and mitigating in densely populated Northeast states, Mr. Cummins says we should build out wind capacity in Great Plains states while developing offshore wind farms, so as to avoid these trade-offs all together.听
鈥淎voidance is the most cost-effective way for conservation,鈥� he says.
As the pace of clean energy construction increases in coming years, these decisions will become all the more urgent. Wind and solar energy, for all of their benefits, take up than fossil fuel power plants. And they promise to significantly transform the landscape in places like Sanford and Windsor.
Mr. Decker, the Sanford town supervisor, says the idea of cutting down trees is not completely foreign to residents; there鈥檚 already some logging activity in the area. But the way acres of land are being cleared for Bluestone Wind has jolted the community, nonetheless.
鈥淭o just go in and clear-cut, that doesn鈥檛 look good,鈥� he says.
Editor's note: This story has been updated to clarify the sources of electricity generated in New York.听听
