Letters

Ignoratio elenchi is Latin for “missing the point” in an argument, presenting an argument that may or may not be logically valid and sound but that fails to address the issue in question.

This is the way I can best describe the comments made by the sustainability advocates, including town officials, as it relates to the debate over the battery energy storage systems facility zoning.

Maybe they can’t see past their grandiose goals of 100 percent renewably sourced electric energy and having a functioning Community Choice Aggregation program. I don’t fault them for being focused on their agenda, but I do take offense to anyone who tries to make their arguments by dismissing the residents of Hampton Bays. I guess they received the memo that it is the playbook of the town’s administration, but they missed the one that the residents of Hampton Bays will no longer be “neutralized.”

The debate at hand is not about renewable energy or competitive pricing. It is about where BESS facilities should be located, if at all, in the Town of Southampton, with its fragile environment and constrained infrastructure. This debate is about whether or not this type and size facility should be located on any parcel of land zoned residential, much less on a parcel contiguous to other residential communities and our fragile waterways. This debate is about the town officials’ failure to fully consider their responsibility to its residents, the environment and constrained infrastructure.

Hampton Bays residents should not be collateral damage for some grandiose goals that may or may not be attainable or even rational and reasonable. It is time for the Town Board to go back to the drawing board on this one.

Gayle Lombardi

Hampton Bays