KingstonCitizens.org is presenting a webinar specifically for all planning and zoning professionals living in the “G” Zone (Ulster, Orange, Greene, Rockland, Putnam and Dutchess Counties). We hope that you or someone you delegate can attend on Tuesday, September 25 from 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm. A Q&A segment will be allotted at the end of the presentations moderated by Rebecca Martin of KingstonCitizens.org.
WATCH Webinar
Attendance to this free webinar event provides credits for the following: AICP (American Institute of Professional Planners) and NYS Planning and Zoning Board.
This webinar event is brought to you by KingstonCitizens.org in partnership with Scenic Hudson, Citizens for Local Power and Riverkeeper. With support from TownOfUlsterCitizens.org, CAPP-NY, Catskill Mountainkeeper, NP Climate Action Coalition. Additional supporters TBA.
OVERVIEW
Invitees will include municipal officials, county and municipal planning departments, and professional planners.
This webinar will discuss the economic and regulatory framework that is compelling developers of small “peaker” power plants to site projects in the Hudson Valley, and what municipalities can do to protect their communities from the impacts of these plants. While larger power plants are regulated under New York State’s Article 10, these smaller facilities are primarily under local jurisdiction.
Most municipalities in the Hudson Valley do not specifically address power plants in their zoning codes and could be vulnerable to an ill-sited project, such as the Lincoln Park Power Plant proposed in the Town of Ulster.
This webinar will provide zoning strategies and model ordinance language that municipalities can use to ensure that power plants—if they are permitted at all–are restricted to areas where undesirable environmental, public health and quality of life effects would not impact community character.
SPEAKERS
Evelyn Wright, PhD – is an economist with 20 years of experience in climate and energy policy analysis. She is Founder and Principal at Sustainable Energy Economics, as well as developer of FACETS framework for analysis of climate-energy-technology systems. At the US Environmental Protection Agency, she led the development of the agency’s MARKAL modeling and scenario analysis team. She was a lead modeler training local experts and guiding development of national planning models in eleven Southeast and Eastern European states on behalf of USAID. Evelyn currently works with Citizens for Local Power, a community-based organization working to create a local, clean energy economy in the Mid-Hudson region. Dr. Wright has also taught economics and environmental policy at Franklin and Marshall College, Towson University, and The Washington Center. She holds a PhD in Ecological Economics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Hayley Carlock, Esq. – is Director of Environmental Advocacy at Scenic Hudson, where she spearheads multi-disciplinary environmental campaigns. Hayley uses tools including litigation, advocacy and grassroots coalition-building to fight threats to the Hudson River and natural resources in New York’s Hudson Valley. She has worked on numerous environmental and energy issues including the Superfund cleanup of PCBs in the Hudson River, energy facility siting, hydrofracking, drinking water and environmental impact review. Hayley has led Scenic Hudson’s successful initiatives to stop the Hudson River from becoming a crude oil superhighway and to halt plans for 43 new industrial barge anchorages on the Hudson. She also helped negotiate Scenic Hudson’s win-win settlement with LG Electronics that reduced the height of its planned corporate headquarters atop New Jersey’s iconic Palisades by more than half, significantly minimizing its impacts on spectacular Palisades views. Prior to joining Scenic Hudson, Hayley worked in private practice for a small litigation firm in the Hudson Valley. She earned her J.D., cum laude, from Vermont Law School in 2009, where she concentrated in environmental law. She is a member of the bar of the State of New York.
WHAT’S NEXT
We plan to record and distribute the webinar as a video, but we hope you will attend so you can participate in Q&A and discussion. (The Q&A portion of the webinar will not be recorded or distributed, to facilitate open discussion.)