Pictured Above: Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell (Standing, Center) at the Cutchogue Civic Association Forum on Battery Energy Storage Systems.
The Southold Town Board is likely to put a proposal for a moratorium on battery energy storage facilities up for a public hearing in February, said board members at their Jan. 17 work session. The moratorium would be designed to give the town a chance to develop siting and safety guidelines for the facilities.
Several potential developers of battery energy storage systems, known in the industry as BESS, are “trying to lock up land in lease options,” said Town Supervisor Scott Russell at the work session. “Once they’ve signed a lease option away, they’re stuck with living with it…. That’s a little unfair to them. They have a right to know whether to enter a lease.”
In addition to a hotly contested…