Letters

Kathleen Bosiwick, in her recent Letter to the Editor [“Existential Risks,” Letters, August 1], manages to savage our town, our governor and her neighbors in less than 300 words.

Sloth, NIMBY-ism, and incompetence account for this apparent perfidy. Disdain and controlled anger seem to drive her rather arrogant letter.

She asserts, after accepting the risks for decades of fossil fuels, that Southampton is taking too much time to start solving this energy problem by installing batteries in Hampton Bays. Not, of course, Sag Harbor. Southampton is “shooting itself in the foot economically” by this unwarranted delay. Ms. Bosiwick, in her elitist “I know what I’m talking about” style, wants us to understand that we can’t “ignore those systemic and existential risks … that are demonstrably manageable.”

She asserts that battery storage will help end the use of fossil fuel while bringing investment and jobs to the community. This tired battle cry of investment potential and job creation is always used by business to strengthen a weak argument. Sadly, she parrots it.

Unfortunately, Ms. Boziwick does not know what she is talking about. She parrots industry talking points, tired pundits and acolytes of a saved planet. She argues for the nirvana of a better climate for “my kids’ chances for a healthy and livable future on the East End.”

But Ms. Bosiwick is not up to date on what has been happening in her town to solve the proper placement of battery storage. That is being done by the town, working long and hard with the relevant organizations to determine the best site for BESS. And that siting does not include a residential area, as does the one proposed for Hampton Bays.

Surely, Ms. Bosiwick knows that our planet will survive any of our meager attempts to save it. But in the meantime we better make the right common-sense attempts to save ourselves and the planet. Perhaps it’s best we not elevate our attempts for the planet to a moral crusade.

May I add, this is my town, my hamlet and, indeed, my backyard. My community and I prefer risks not be managed but eliminated so our kids and grandkids have a chance for a livable future anywhere they choose to live.

Put BESS in any nonresidential area.

Steve Crispinelli

Hampton Bays