What a sad ending to prime farmland, animal habitat, and viewsheds at the base of the gorgeous Adirondack Mountains.
The town of Kingsbury tried to do the right thing and fight this, too. But they were no match for the legal power and money behind the multinational corporate conglomerate of AES.
When residents in Kingsbury, New York sounded the alarm and informed the town they had not been made aware of this incoming complex, the town listened to its residents and tried to do the right thing.
Kingsbury's Code Enforcement Officer concluded there were material misrepresentations regarding neighborhood outreach and public awareness during the approval process.
The town attempted to annul the prior approvals.
This is common with all commercial solar salesmen. They lie to American landowners and tell them their "neighbor already said yes, so they should, too." In Kingsbury, it came out that the solar company had done just that, misleading landowners.
Well AES didn't like that very much.
AES responded by suing the Town of Kingsbury, the Planning Board, and the Code Enforcement Officer.
Obviously, the multi-billion dollar renewable company won, and this is the view on Vaughn Road in Kingsbury, New York today.
Who owns AES?
A Google search will show you:
"The buyers in this consortium include U.S.-based Global Infrastructure Partners (a subsidiary of BlackRock), Sweden's EQT, the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), and the Qatar Investment Authority."
That's who strong-armed, bullied, and legally flattened a small New York town to force a commercial solar complex into one of the prettiest regions of the state.
This is foreign intervention in the form of swallowing our home rule whole.