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August 14, 2010

A few citizens in Cape Vincent have known for some time that it was coming down, eventually. It had to. Blatant conflicts of interest were driving the development of industrial wind in Senator Darrel Aubertine's home town, where he once served on the same town board that is now under investigation by the New York State Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate for Governor.

In fact, before he was Senator, Aubertine wrote a letter to the Cape Vincent Town Board. To many, the letter seemed to be giving three wind lease holding town board members permission to be unethical and vote on wind development matters. It also appeared that he was suggesting they should not give the community a voice in wind decisions when he said, "governing by referendum is unwise". Then, he added, "...shouldn't the community decide now what the guiding principles will be for future abstention in different matters..."
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“It shouldn’t have been placed there,” ~ Ted Cheskey, Manager of Nature Canada Bird Conservation Program

Alarming bird and bat mortality rates at the Wolfe Island wind farm have an international group calling for a three-year moratorium on wind energy projects on the Upper St. Lawrence River and east end of Lake Ontario. Save The River vice-president Stephanie Weiss said the 86-windmill farm has caused the death of 688 birds and bats, equalling eight per windmill (over 6 months).

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Life is returning to the Fenner Wind Farm, one turbine at a time. A handful of local officials, residents and Enel North America employees watched Thursday morning as three of the farm’s 19 windmills began turning. “Let’s get them rolling,” Fenner Supervisor Russell Cary said into a walkie-talkie. Within minutes, the blades were spinning — slowly at first, then picking up speed. The remaining turbines will return to service in the coming weeks.

August 12, 2010
Steve Orr, Democrat and Chronicle Staff Writer

The New York Power Authority, which is considering private-sector proposals to erect offshore wind turbines, has failed to fully respond to a legal request made two months ago by the Democrat and Chronicle for information about the proposals.The authority is promoting construction of one or more wind farms in the New York waters of Lake Ontario or Lake Erie, an idea that has stirred considerable controversy in shoreline communities. Because of that controversy, local officials and activists have also expressed interest in obtaining the information sought in the request.

An authority lawyer is nearly four weeks overdue in answering an administrative appeal filed by the Democrat and Chronicle. The appeal seeks reversal of a decision by a different authority official to deny public access to any documents from the wind-farm proposals. A spokeswoman for the Power Authority, Connie Cullen, said Tuesday that the Democrat and Chronicle's appeal "is still under review" by the authority's executive vice president and general counsel, Terryl Brown. The appeal was filed June 30 with an addendum the following day. Under a provision of the Freedom of Information law, Brown should have responded no later than July 16.

Note from a concerned citizen: This development in Wisconsin is just the kind of thing we need to be very vigilant on.  The wind developers prefer this approach and so does the renewable energy bureaucracy in government.

The Wind Siting Council has presented its recommendations to the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (PSC). Various stakeholders have met during the past four months in order to discuss siting issues in Wisconsin.

In October 2009, Gov. Jim Doyle, D-Wis., signed into law the 2009 Wisconsin Act 40 (Act 40), which creates a policy framework to allow uniform local regulation of wind energy systems in the state. Act 40 directs the PSC to promulgate rules to specify maximum restrictions that a municipality can impose on installation and use of wind energy projects throughout the state.

The Cape Vincent-Lyme, NY contingent of the green shirt Voters for Wind created quite a stir in these parts last Thursday when they donned their trademark and attended a Jefferson County Industrial Development Meeting in Watertown, NY.  Their purpose was to object to wording in the agency's draft of a uniform tax exempt policy document that gave local taxing jurisdictions any choice in whether or not they wanted to grant a wind developer (it would apply to other development, too) a sweet deal payment in lieu of taxes. Of the two local tax jurisdictions, the town and the school, the voters for wind specifically targeted our elected members of our school boards. No democratic choice for them, was their theme. Voters for wind think the school board member's job is to just teach kids. Not making PILOT decisions that affect the financial future of the district they serve.

A Watertown Daily Times editorial disagrees with voters for wind on the local choice issue:
The JCIDA board rightly rejected attempts by developers to bypass local input by denying municipalities a vote on a PILOT plan granting huge tax breaks paid for by other taxpayers in towns and school districts.

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The Jefferson County Industrial Development Agency's uniform tax-exempt policy gives taxing jurisdictions a greater voice in developing payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreements on wind power projects. The JCIDA board rightly rejected attempts by developers to bypass local input by denying municipalities a vote on a PILOT plan granting huge tax breaks paid for by other taxpayers in towns and school districts.

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July 8 — a Thursday — was the height of Ontario’s heat wave, the day it reached 35 degrees in Ottawa, the day when air conditioners strained our electrical system to the limit. Ontario was drinking power at a rate of more than 25,000 megawatts — that’s 25 billion watts — in the late afternoon. Not a record, but far more than most summer days. Our nuclear reactors were pumping out more than 9,200 megawatts. Hydroelectric power (mainly Niagara Falls) supplied another 3,400. We burned gas and coal to generate another 10,200. But wind power, one of the ways of the future, supplied just 107 megawatts of electricity. That’s less than half of one per cent of the province’s demand and enough to power a mere 32,100 homes.