New York’s Accelerated Renewable Energy Growth and Community Benefits Act, passed as part of the State’s 2021 Budget, establishes an Office of Renewable Energy Siting, which will consolidate the environmental review of major renewable energy facilities and provide a single forum for siting decision on renewable projects over 25 MW. The Office will establish regulations and uniform standards that encompass the environmental impacts common to large, renewable energy projects, and identify mitigation measures to address those impacts, develop draft permits for public comment and local community input, and ensure complete applications are acted upon within one year, except in the case of certain former commercial and industrial sites, which will be reviewed within six months.
The Office will replace the process under NY’s Article X, listed elsewhere in this section, with the intention of speeding up the permitting process. A company proposing, for instance, a new solar array could conceivably get approval in about two years – about half what it would have taken under Article 10.