Siting Council OKs massive solar farm in Woodbury
STEVE BIGHAM
WOODBURY – A plan to build a solar farm the size of 12
football fields off Fawn Meadow Lane has been approved by the Connecticut
Siting Council with a long list of conditions.
Greenskies Clean Energy’s application for a certificate of
environmental compatibility and public need was granted Dec. 5, clearing a
required hurdle to operate a 4,625-megawatt solar array.
The facility, which would be among the area’s largest, does
not require any approvals from the town of Woodbury, falling instead under the
auspices of the Siting Council, which oversees proposed uses such as solar
panels and cell towers.
The approval requires that Greenskies of North Haven provide
a full site plan before construction on the 36-acre, heavily wooded property
begins.
Woodbury land use coordinator Will Agresta said Greenskies’
business model involves using the panels to generate enough electricity to
power as many as 400 homes. That electricity would be harnessed and then sold
to power companies.
A company’s plan to build a solar farm the size of 12
football fields has been approved, with conditions, by the Connecticut Siting
Council, paving the way for its construction off Fawn Meadow Lane in Woodbury.
Contributed
The Siting Council’s approval follows multiple hearings on
the proposal last year.
Greenskies officials also have met with neighbors who
expressed concerns about the facility’s size, high visibility, noise and effect
on the environment. Greenskies officials said they have designed a facility
that will not impact neighbors.
The council’s approval requires the applicant to relocate a
transformer pad to increase its distance from abutting property lines. It also
requires Greenskies to consult with property owners regarding landscape
plantings to mitigate views of the facility. Other conditions include
environmental and noise compliance with state standards, as well as a plan for
erosion and sediment control.
Farm Meadow Lane was developed in recent years with the
construction of several homes within the subdivision. An additional 36 acres
had been earmarked for further residential development of 10 to 12 lots but has
since been nixed in favor of the solar farm, Agresta said.
Greenskies plans to lease the land from property owner Trofu
Enterprises of Fairfield.
Neighbor Bill Burgess was not surprised by the council’s
decision and said residents got involved to limit the project’s impact. He said
it has yet to be determined if the installation of 9,000 solar panels will
negatively impact home values.
Dredging starts at Rocky Neck State Park
Sarah Gordon
East Lyme — Construction equipment broke up the skyline of
the marshes at Rocky Neck State Park on Wednesday as the sound of dredging
equipment was carried by the wind.
The project will dredge Bride Brook to restore tidal flow
and drain the marsh. It aims to restore lost habitat and food for birds, fish
and other wildlife in the area.
The Nature Conservancy, a global environmental nonprofit,
received a $4 million grant from the federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration in December of 2024 under the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure
Law and Inflation Reduction Act to study what has harmed the Bride Brook
marsh’s health and what can be done to restore it. The dredging is being funded
by a previous federal grant.
Working with the state Department of Energy and
Environmental Protection, The Nature Conservancy’s Connecticut office will
spend the next three years researching how to best restore the marsh to improve
tidal exchanges between Bride Brook tidal creek and Long Island Sound.
5 ways Trump could impact infrastructure construction in 2025
A slew of changes are coming under the Trump administration
for infrastructure builders working in the U.S.
Despite anxiety around his tariff and mass deportation
promises, the construction
industry is optimistic about the return of a fellow builder to the
Oval Office. The importance of infrastructure is largely acknowledged as a
bipartisan issue, said Mary Scott Nabers, CEO of Austin, Texas-based Strategic
Partnerships, a government procurement consultancy.
“I think that the construction industry should feel very
positive about 2025,” Nabers said. “From all indications, the next three or
four years will be very good for the construction industry.”
There’s plenty of work to be done: Not only the
country’s massive
repair backlog, but also burgeoning demands for climate resilience, tougher
infrastructure cybersecurity and new
energy sources to power the rapidly growing domestic data center and
manufacturing industries.
Here are five key ways that President-elect Donald Trump
could impact civil construction in the year ahead:
Potential impact to IIJA funding
Three years into the five-year, $1.2 trillion Infrastructure
Investment and Jobs Act, Biden will pass the baton to Trump with a sizable
chunk of money left. The new administration will have to staff up and get up to
speed with the IIJA’s many programs.
IIJA funds are on track to be awarded in their entirety in
the five-year timeframe, per analysis from Washington, D.C.-based think tank
Brookings, but that money hasn’t necessarily hit jobsites yet and it will
take years
after the IIJA expires for all of its projects to be completed. It’s
possible for Trump to claw back some funds or shift them around.
“The Biden administration still leaves the Trump
administration with $294 billion to award, including $87.2 billion in
competitive grantmaking, where Trump’s agency staff will personally determine
the winners,” according to Brookings.
Indeed, it is safe to assume the Trump administration will
conduct a comprehensive
review of the IIJA and “seek to roll back those portions of the bill
that he deems to be excessive spending,” said experts at law firm Holland and
Knight.
Although it’s impossible to know what Trump and his
appointees will do, Highway
Trust Fund dollars and advanced appropriations are largely safe,
according to SmartBrief. Nabers believes much of the infrastructure funding
that the construction industry benefits from will stick around until at least
fiscal year 2026.
“Dismantling the infrastructure programs, since they’re primarily about infrastructure and water and critical needs, is not likely to be a high priority for the new administration,” Nabers said. “Trump’s team will likely extend the [Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act] and [Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act] and the community development block grant programs, and that spurs a lot of construction.”
More focus on traditional infrastructure and rural areas
Nonetheless, the new administration brings new
priorities. Trump may seek to defund high-speed rail projects, per Holland
and Knight, and he has been critical of electric vehicle efforts.
Trump will likely focus funding on traditional
infrastructure like roads and bridges, said Alex Etchen, vice president of
government relations at Associated General Contractors of America.
“Those large discretionary grants run out of U.S. DOT, I
think you’ll see them reprioritize project selections,” said Etchen. “I think
you’ll see a shift away from the electric vehicle focus, the climate change
reduction or carbon reduction focus that we saw under the last
administration.”
The Trump administration will also likely move more money to
rural areas, said Etchen.
“In their first term, they really made a priority to ensure
rural [areas] got [their] fair share of infrastructure funding,” Etchen said.
Emphasis on P3s
In his first term, Trump refused
to support an infrastructure bill that didn’t have a massive
private-sector contribution, and he will likely continue to advocate for
funding projects that way.
“It does appear that Trump’s team will push public-private
partnerships, and also find other ways to incentivize private sector
investment,” said Nabers. “There’s not enough public funding, and there won’t
be 10 years from now, to fix all the infrastructure needs that we will have to
address in our continually evolving world.”
Public opinion is sometimes negative towards P3 projects
and Trump
once called them “more trouble than they’re worth.” However, he ran on
reducing government spending, so they’re a funding tool he’s likely to use,
according to Frank Banda, managing partner – Government and Public Sector
Advisory at New York City-based accounting firm CohnReznick.
“The reality is, I think the P3s are to continue to help us
accomplish what we need to accomplish,” Banda said. “We’re going to need a
partner to help us get these things done.”
As president, Trump took a slew of actions to speed the
permitting process for construction projects. He
issued executive orders in 2020 curbing NEPA, the Endangered Species
Act and the Clean Water Act — and will likely do so again, per Holland and
Knight.
Trump’s first term offers clues as to what he could
accomplish quickly, without involving Congress. Executive orders he made
include concurrent reviews, lead federal agency page limits, deadlines for
approvals and repercussions if those deadlines aren’t met, said Etchen.
“We’re anticipating he will revert back to that policy in
the beginning of his second term,” said Etchen. “We’re also hopeful for a
broader permitting reform getting through Congress.”
The environmental review process has slowed down the launch
of infrastructure megaprojects in particular, per Nabers, and Trump recently
indicated that permit speed is top of mind. In a Dec. 10 post
on his Truth Social site, Trump said anyone making a $1 billion investment
in the U.S. “will receive fully expedited approvals and permits, including, but
in no way limited to, all Environmental approvals.”
A case
being mulled in the Supreme Court — Seven County Infrastructure
Coalition v. Eagle County — also has the potential to drastically weaken NEPA
reviews.
Builders are also hoping for updates to the Build America,
Buy America program, which mandates certain domestically manufactured materials
on federal projects. GCs continue to be frustrated by the slow and convoluted
BABA waiver process, according to Etchen.
“One of the things we advocate for is that waiver requests
should be posted the day they receive them, and they should not require, you
know, the White House signing the permission slip for them to be posted on a
publicly available website,” Etchen said.
Looking for waste and fraud
Bolstered with a new Department of Government Efficiency,
builders should expect an administration hyper-focused on rooting out waste and
abuse of federal funds, according to Banda.
“There will be probably more oversight, integrity monitoring
even, and accountability, because there’s an increased focus on reduction of
fraud, waste and abuse,” Banda said. “The agencies that [builders are] working
with will probably need to put in place some robust controls.”
How can contractors prepare? Get your paperwork in order,
according to Banda.
“[Builders are] going to have to demonstrate that they have
systems and controls in place to manage these projects and control the costs
associated with these projects,” Banda said.