William J. Kemble reports in the Daily Freeman that the Town of Ulster took the lead agency role Jan. 8 for environmental reviews of an application to construct a 20-megawatt electric generating plant there. “A DEC (official) came in on Thursday,” Supervisor James Quigley said. “He took a walk of the site with an engineer from the project, then came over and sat down and talked with the town. He said basically in response to the Scenic Hudson request that DEC’s response to the town ... would be after the statutory 30-day period, and the town has every right to say that it is lead agency.” The plant would be located off of Frank Sottile Boulevard, with two 10-megawatt generators using a combination of lithium ion batteries and natural gas as energy sources. The plant would operate at times when the grid is stressed and needs more power. Environmental groups Scenic Hudson, Catskill Mountainkeeper, Coalition Against Pilgrim Pipelines, Kingston Citizens, and Riverkeeper wanted the Department of Environmental Conservation to be the lead agency on the review. Read the full story in the Daily Freeman.