New York's environmental review process — and the terms (lead agency, positive declaration, scoping, EIS) that recur in these battery-storage cases.
The State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQR, often “SEQRA”) requires New York’s state and local government agencies to weigh the environmental impacts of a project — alongside social and economic factors — before they approve, fund, or undertake it. The NYS DEC describes it as making agencies “equally examine the environmental impacts along with the social and economic considerations” during their discretionary review.
A key thing to hold onto: SEQR is a process, not a verdict. It does not, by itself, approve or kill a project. It governs how carefully a project is studied and how much public input it gets before the deciding agency votes. That is why it shows up on both sides of these fights — opponents often push for the most thorough review, while applicants sometimes prefer the lighter path.
These are the SEQR terms that recur in the case files.
For a contested battery project the sequence usually runs: a developer applies → the local board takes lead agency status → it classifies the action and reviews the EAF → it issues a positive or negative declaration → if positive, scoping sets the study’s terms → a DEIS is written and opened for public comment → a FEIS and findings follow → only then does the board vote on the permit. Each step adds time and a public-comment window, which is why a positive declaration is itself a flashpoint.
SEQR is easy to confuse with a moratorium, but they are different tools. SEQR is a review process run by the lead agency for a specific project. A moratorium is a local zoning measure — a town pausing or banning a category of projects outright, regardless of any individual review. A project can face both at once: the Terra-Gen proposal is in SEQR review in the Town of Ulster while the neighboring Town of Hurley enacted a moratorium.
SEQR is increasingly contested. Critics — builders, “abundance” / YIMBY groups, the Citizens Budget Commission, and Governor Hochul — argue it has become a tool to delay or block projects, including the housing and clean energy it was meant to steer, often through the threat of an Article 78 lawsuit. The state says environmental review can add up to two years and roughly $82,000 per housing unit, and that New York projects can take 56% longer than in peer states. (Governor’s office)
Defenders — environmental groups and land trusts such as the Citizens Campaign for the Environment — counter that SEQR secures public input, disclosure, and consideration of alternatives, and that the real barriers are infrastructure and sewer gaps, not review. “We reject the whole premise that SEQRA is the reason we don’t have affordable housing,” said the group’s director, Adrienne Esposito. (Citizens Campaign for the Environment)
The law has been pared back in stages:
None of these rollbacks reach standalone battery storage — the subject of this site. The state renewable-siting forum (ORES) only covers a battery when it is co-located with a 25 MW-or-larger renewable project; “Let Them Build” is housing and civic infrastructure, not energy generation or storage. So a standalone BESS still goes through full local review and stays exposed to local moratoria — which is why these fights play out town by town. A pending bill, S5506 / A8378, would extend the state forum to standalone “qualified energy storage,” but as of 2026 it remains in committee.
The DEC’s SEQR page links the plain-language Citizen’s Guide to SEQR and the visual SEQR Cookbook, plus the full SEQR Handbook (the definitions of record). The NYS Department of State offers a SEQRA Basics course aimed at local officials.