High River Energy Center, LLC - 17-F-0597
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212 1 9-24-2020 - High River Energy Center, LLC - 17-F-0597 2 NEW YORK STATE BOARD ON ELECTRIC 3 GENERATION SITING AND THE ENVIRONMENT 4 5 CASES 17-F-0597 - Application of High 6 River Energy center, LLC for a Certificate of 7 Environmental Compatibility and Public Need Pursuant 8 to Article 10 of the Public Service Law for 9 Construction of a Solar Electric Generating Facility 10 Located in the Town of Florida, Montgomery County. 11 12 WEBEX EVIDENTIARY HEARING 13 DATE: September 24, 2020 14 TIME: 9:03 a.m. - 4:18 p.m. 15 16 17 18 19 ALJ SEAN MULLANY DPS 20 ALJ RICHARD SHERMAN DEC 21 22 23 24 25 213 1 9-24-2020 - High River Energy Center, LLC - 17-F-0597 2 APPEARANCES: 3 HIGH RIVER ENERGY CENTER, LLC 4 BY: SAM LANIADO ESQ. 5 TYLER WOLCOTT, ESQ. 6 CITY OF AMSTERDAM 7 BY: MATTHEW AGRESTA 8 NYS DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION 9 BY: MARY A. BONILLA, ESQ. 10 THOMAS MCGUIRE, ESQ. 11 KRISTY PRIMEAU, ANALYST 12 CITIZENS FOR RESPONSIBLE SOLAR FARM PLACEMENT 13 BY: GARY BOWITCH ESQ. 14 NYS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SERVICE 15 BY: ANDREA CERBIN, ESQ. 16 NOREENA CHAUDARI, ESQ. 17 LORNA GILLINGS, ESQ. 18 TOWN OF FLORIDA 19 BY: MICHAEL CROWE, ESQ. 20 JANET BLOCKER, INDIVIDUAL 21 TOWN OF FLORIDA 22 BY: STEPHEN LEFEVRE 23 NYS LABORERS’ ORGANIZING FUND 24 BY: SEAN MORAN 25 NYS DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND MARKETS 214 1 9-24-2020 - High River Energy Center, LLC - 17-F-0597 2 BY: JASON MULFORD 3 TARA WELLS, ESQ. 4 CITIZENS FOR RESPONSIBLE SOLAR FARM PLACEMENT 5 BY: VIJAY V. PURAN 6 NYS DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH 7 BY: WILLIM SACKS 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 215 1 9-24-2020 - High River Energy Center, LLC - 17-F-0597 2 I N D E X O F P R O C E E D I N G S 3 WITNESSES: 4 MICHAEL ROSS 5 CROSS EXAMINATION BY MR. BOWITCH 223 6 7 DPS PANEL (CHAUDARI, DAVIS, FLAUM, MORENO-CAVALLERO, 8 QUACKENBUSH, GILLING, EDMUNDSON) 9 CROSS EXAMINATION BY MR. BOWITCH 317 10 REDIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. LANIADO 333 11 12 VIJAY PURAN, PETER MICHALSKI, DAVID SLEZAK 13 DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. BOWITCH 360 14 CROSS EXAMINATION BY MR. CROWE 371 15 16 DIANE RIELLY 17 REDIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. LANIADO 399 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 216 1 9-24-2020 - High River Energy Center, LLC - 17-F-0597 2 (On the record 9:03) 3 MR. ULASEWICZ: I think Mike Crowe 4 told you yesterday Judge he'll be joining us in about 5 an hour. 6 A.L.J. MULLANY: Very good, thank you 7 Mr. Ulasewicz. Okay, Howard. I think we can go on the 8 record. 9 THE REPORTER: Okay, just one moment. 10 Okay, we are on the record. 11 A.L.J. MULLANY: Thank you, sir. Good 12 morning everyone. This is Judge Mullany. We're also 13 joined this morning by Judge Sherman of the DEC. I'd 14 like to take appearances for the record please 15 starting with the company. 16 MR. LANIADO: On behalf of High River 17 Energy Center, LLC. the law firm of Read and Laniado, 18 Tyler Wolcott, Zachary Perdek, and Sam Laniado. 19 A.L.J. MULLANY: Thank you. Next, 20 department staff please. 21 MS. CHAUDARI: Good morning. On behalf 22 of the Department of Public Service staff this is 23 Noreena Chaudari and with me is Brian Ossias. 24 A.L.J. MULLANY: Good morning. Next 25 will be Department of Environmental Conservation 217 1 9-24-2020 - High River Energy Center, LLC - 17-F-0597 2 please. 3 MR. MCGUIRE: This is Tom McGuire for 4 New York State DEC staff. 5 A.L.J. MULLANY: Good morning. Next 6 will be New York State Department of Agriculture and 7 Markets please. 8 MS. WELLS: Good morning. This is Tara 9 Wells on behalf of New York State Department of 10 Agriculture and Markets. 11 A.L.J. MULLANY: Good morning. Next 12 will be Town of Florida please. 13 MR. ULASEWICZ: Yeah, this is Tom 14 Ulasewicz with the law firm of Fitzgerald Morris 15 Baker Firth representing the Town of Florida. 16 A.L.J. MULLANY: Good morning. 17 MR. ULASEWICZ: Good morning. 18 A.L.J. MULLANY: And lastly, but not 19 least, the Citizens for Responsible Solar Farm 20 Placement please. 21 MR. BOWITCH: This is Gary Bowitch of 22 the law firm of Bowitch and Coffey on behalf of the 23 Citizens group, and we also have on the line Vijay 24 Puran who is a member of the group. 25 A.L.J. MULLANY: Good morning. Okay, 218 1 9-24-2020 - High River Energy Center, LLC - 17-F-0597 2 so procedurally I have two things on my agenda for 3 today. First is the cross regarding visual impacts 4 and second is addressing the request for cross 5 examination by the Town of Florida. Mr. Ulasewicz, 6 because Mr. Crowe is not available yet, it's my 7 understanding you're going to wait until he's making 8 an appearance. Is that correct? 9 MR. ULASEWICZ: That's correct Judge. 10 A.L.J. MULLANY: Okay, very good. So 11 all right, we can then proceed to the cross 12 examination regarding visual impacts unless anyone 13 has any procedural matters they'd like to raise 14 first. Very good so Citizens, Mr. Bowitch, what's 15 your first cross? 16 MR. BOWITCH: I'm not sure I 17 understand Your Honor. We're going to be crossing the 18 applicant. 19 A.L.J. MULLANY: The applicant, okay. 20 So we have an applicant panel? 21 MR. BOWITCH: Yes. 22 A.L.J. MULLANY: Mr. Laniado, is your 23 panel available? 24 MR. LANIADO: They should be. The 25 panel consists of Judith Bartos, Keddy Chandran, 219 1 9-24-2020 - High River Energy Center, LLC - 17-F-0597 2 William Boer, Samantha Kranes, Heather Vaillant, 3 Daniel Marieni, and Michael Ross. 4 A.L.J. MULLANY: I'm sorry, that last 5 name Michael? 6 MR. LANIADO: Ross, R-O-S-S. 7 A.L.J. MULLANY: Thank you, Mr. 8 Laniado. I believe Howard you have all those names 9 from yesterday so I think we're good to go. 10 THE REPORTER: Yeah, can I hear the 11 first two names? 12 MR. LANIADO: Sure, Judith Bartos, B- 13 A-R-T-O-S. 14 THE REPORTER: Okay, yeah I have that. 15 MR. LANIADO: Keddy Chandran. 16 THE REPORTER: Okay, yeah, I do. I 17 have those two. Okay, thank you. 18 MR. LANIADO: Right, no. Your Honor, 19 let me just make sure all the panel members are on 20 the phone. Is everybody on the phone that I just 21 named from the applicant? 22 MS. BARTOS: Yes, Judy is here. 23 MR. BOER: Bill is here. 24 MR. LANIADO: Michael, are you here? 25 MR. CHANDRAN: Keddy is here. 220 1 9-24-2020 - High River Energy Center, LLC - 17-F-0597 2 MS. KRANES: Samantha is here. 3 MR. ROSS: Michael is here. 4 MS. VAILLANT: Heather is here. 5 MR. LANIADO: Dan? Dan, are you there? 6 MR. LANIADO: Okay, great. All right, 7 we're -- Your Honor, the panel's testimony has 8 already been entered to the record as if orally given 9 as well as their supporting exhibits. So I don’t 10 think Michael Ross has been sworn in yet if you want 11 to swear him in or you could swear the panel once 12 again. It's a new day. 13 A.L.J. MULLANY: I -- I like your 14 sense of renewal Mr. Laniado. I think Mr. Ross is the 15 only one we need to swear in a new -- the other 16 witnesses I'm going to consider to still be sworn in 17 under oath. I hope that they know and understand 18 that. So if I can just get an affirmative from them 19 that would be great. 20 MS. BARTOS: Witness Bartos, yes. 21 JUDITH BARTOS; SWORN 22 A.L.J. MULLANY: My apologies for 23 interrupting. I heard Judith and I heard someone else 24 who didn’t identify themselves. If you could for the 25 record just identify yourself before you speak. 221 1 9-24-2020 - High River Energy Center, LLC - 17-F-0597 2 MR. BOER: This is William Boer also 3 affirming. 4 WILLIAM BOER; SWORN 5 MS. KRANES: Samantha Kranes, yes. 6 SAMANTHA KRANES; SWORN 7 MR. CHANDRAN: Keddy Chandran, yes. 8 KEDDY CHANDRAN; SWORN 9 MR. MARIENI: Dan Marieni, yes. 10 DAN MARIENI; SWORN 11 A.L.J. MULLANY: And do we have an 12 affirmative from Heather Vaillant? Ms. Vaillant, are 13 you on the line? 14 MR. LANIADO: She's either on mute or 15 dropped off. 16 A.L.J. MULLANY: She may have dropped 17 off? 18 MR. LANIADO: Yeah. 19 A.L.J. MULLANY: Okay. Well, Mr. 20 Laniado, do you think you could maybe try and reach 21 her by an alternative means? 22 MR. LANIADO: Yes. We'll call her now, 23 but we can proceed -- the panel can proceed with the 24 cross, and then she can join. 25 A.L.J. MULLANY: Okay, just instruct 222 1 9-24-2020 - High River Energy Center, LLC - 17-F-0597 2 her when she joins to announce herself and to affirm 3 that she understands she's still under oath, okay? 4 MR.