About Gwendolyn Craig

Gwen is an award-winning journalist covering environmental policy for the Explorer since January 2020. She also takes photos and videos for the Explorer's magazine and website. She is a current member of the Legislative Correspondents Association of New York. Gwen has worked at various news outlets since 2015. Prior to moving to upstate New York, she worked for a D.C. Metro-area public relations firm, producing digital content for clients including the World Health Organization, the Low Income Investment Fund and Rights and Resources Initiative. She has a master's degree in journalism from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. She has bachelor's degrees in English and journalism, with a concentration in ecology and evolutionary biology, from the University of Connecticut. Gwen is also a part-time figure skating coach. Contact her at (518) 524-2902 or gwen@adirondackexplorer.org. Sign up for Gwen’s newsletter here.

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Comments

  1. JB says

    Given all of the undeveloped private land in the Park, and the massive influx of money coming alongside the solar boom, this could be a real problem in the Park, in terms of ecosystem disruptions, deforestation, residential concerns, reduced recreation opportunity and threats to “wilderness character”. I’m guessing that many of these solar farms are utilizing cadmium telluride panels? Introducing thousands of tons of heavy metals into the Park is not a great long-term proposition. Are pesticides being used? How much halogenated/organophosphate flame-retardant and phthalate laden supersized-DC-rated PVC cable is being buried? That stuff will get into air, water and soils. The Adirondack region is already contributing its fair share of hydroelectric. Some things to think about.

  2. adkresident says

    NYS at peak uses about 33,000 Mega watts, that is 33,000,000,000 watts. Many of these solar farms produce about 300.

    To power the NYC subway you need a solar farm 3x the area of central park.

    It’s all a big scam. Without money from the government they would never exist.

  3. James Torriani says

    This is a problem environmentalists don’t want to face. The enormous destruction of trees and fields to build solar farms which will produce almost mo power in the winter. One nuclear plant will take up hardly any land and produce an enormous amont of CO2 power.
    Robert Bryce claims he brought this problem up with Bill McKibben and McKibben said he didn’t want to divide the environmental movement.

  4. George Kamburoff says

    My entire household and two electric cars are powered by a PV system which paid back in three years in gasoline savings alone. Do you still need to go out to gas up and PAY? Need oil changes, emissions checks, transmission work, tune-ups,and engine maintenance? Not us. We fuel at night with the free power we put into the grid that day.

      • George Kamburoff says

        Northern California. The lesson is the future is already here, and we can all find ways to getting cleaner and saving money at the same time. I earned a Master of Science in Environmental Management in 1982 and am a former utility engineer, and did it because I am an eco-freak, but was surprised at the payback.

  5. Mark Twichell says

    There is no longer an environmental exception to solar/wind industrialization anywhere in NYS. Gov. Cuomo suspended the SEQRA for these projects in 2019. McKibben says loss of environmental amenities is the price we have to pay for wind/soilar facilities inside the line. An honest cost-benefit analysis would include how many tons of emissions are displaced by each individual facility. Absent this the tsunami of projects will continue to overwhelm the region with only an abstract concept as justification.

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