You may need to brace yourself for thicker sweaters and thinner wallets next year, as Rochester Gas & Electric and New York State Electric and Gas are seeking sizable rate increases. If approved by the state Public Service Commission, the higher rates could go into effect by August 2010 and raise the average bills of households served by the utilities by roughly $400 to $450 a year. ...The PSC has an 11-month deadline for ruling on the request. No dates have been set for hearings.

The Cattaraugus County Legislature will be represented on a panel that will work with town and school delegates to set up a tax-exemption policy for the Cattaraugus County Industrial Development Agency’s wind farm projects. A blanket state tax exemption for wind farms and other alternative energy systems was lifted in the county by the Legislature in 2008 following a lengthy debate.

The Naples School Board voted last week to accept an agreement with First Wind that would give the district higher payments on any windmills the company may build within the district boundaries. ...At this point, Macaluso said First Wind has put the project on hold because of finance troubles.

New York State Electric & Gas Corp., acquired last fall by a large Spanish utility, wants to increase rates and plans to reduce capital spending this year as it faces serious financial issues. ...It is unclear how any rate increase sought by NYSEG would be impacted by the $275 million that the PSC has ordered Iberdrola to return to upstate customers as a condition of the merger.

The instability of the financial markets had caused Noble Environmental Power to "scale back its development plans for 2009" and "(cut) back its workforce." Immediately, construction of a 14-turbine windpark planned for the town of Bellmont will be suspended until July or August of 2009, Bellmont Town Supervisor Bruce Russell said Friday. ...To date, the company has laid foundation for the town's 14 turbines and installed wiring, he said.

The City Council Monday was asked by Assessor Frank E. Krakowski to approve a correction of the adjusted base proportions of the 2008-2009 assessment rolls because of a computer error that did not assign an assessed value to one of the eight new wind turbines off Route 5. ...Krakowski said the computer miscalculation had the effect of inflating the city's taxable value by more than $1 million. ...[First Ward Councilwoman Andrea] Haxton also complained the Steel Winds wind farm project was supposed to lowertaxes for ratepayers in the city. "With the windmills here, it's ridiculous that taxes have to change," Haxton said.

UPC Wind, developer of two Steuben County wind farms, has agreed to pay $14.5 million in lieu of taxes over the next 20 years. The company announced the agreement with the Steuben County Industrial Development Agency on Monday. The county agency will administer the payments, which will go to the town of Cohocton, the Wayland-Cohocton Central School District and the Avoca School District, UPC Wind said in a news release. The agreement covers payments in lieu of taxes on the developer's Cohocton and Dutch Hill wind power projects. Construction of the Cohocton project began last fall. ...James Hall, a spokesman for windmill project opponent Cohocton Wind Watch, said the figures in the new agreement conflict with earlier information provided to the group by the Industrial Development Agency.

Mohawk Valley power rates would eventually fall because of the proposed New York Regional Interconnect line, but not before they rise, company officials said Friday. That's a reversal of the company's prediction in 2006 that upstate power rates would go up even as downstate rates would fall. ...That assertion was met with skepticism from local politicians and economic-development officials, who continue to see the planned, 190-mile, 1,200-megawatt power line as a threat to the Utica area's economy. "I think that's part of the misinformation that we have continually been getting from NYRI," said U.S. Rep. Michael Arcuri, D-N.Y. "There isn't an hour that goes by in Congress that we don't talk about alternative energy and the high cost of energy. No one expects the cost will decrease."

Lawmakers in Jefferson County are about to get a crash course in wind farms and the revenue they generate. Tomorrow, the Board of Legislators will meet with Syracuse attorney Kevin McAuliffe, who specializes in payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) agreements relating to wind projects. Because there are a number of wind farm proposals in the county, lawmakers are looking into ways PILOT programs can be structured. In any PILOT deal with a wind farm developer, money is paid to the county, school districts and municipalities where the turbines are located. Legislature Chairman Ken Blankenbush said he'd like to see a uniform PILOT deal - a one-size-fits-all package for every wind company.

“I’m not sure everyone knows what they are voting on,” Bono, District 11, said prior to the vote. ...information included guidelines for the contract negotiation, which include a proposal for a payment in lieu of taxes of $8,000 per megawatt, for a total of $640,000 on an 80 megawatt project. The information also said that the county would receive a one-time payment of $360,000 to $400,000 in its general fund for use on other projects such as the construction of a new county correctional facility. “One of my main concerns is how can I justify an 85 percent tax break for this company and not for anyone else,” Bono said. “We want to attract businesses to Herkimer County, but we cannot give 85 percent tax breaks to everyone. We need to continue to work with the numbers.”

When LIPA ...first proposed the offshore wind project in 2003, costs were estimated at $200 million. The company said it would have little to no impact on electricity rates. That was the last published cost estimate until fall 2006, when under a Freedom of Information Law request from Newsday, the power authority released the original, winning bid from FPL Energy of Florida: $356 million. The price increases didn't stop there. ..."Long Islanders shouldn't believe for one minute that any major form of renewable energy is going to be cheaper than traditional resources produced by oil or natural gas," Kessel wrote.

Lingering hard feelings over negotiations for wind-farm-tax agreements last month may lead Franklin County to create a planning department. ... Thursday, when IDA Executive Director Brad Jackson came before the County Legislature's Economic Planning and Development Committee, he was criticized for not doing enough to look out for the county's interest at the negotiating table. Saranac Lake Democrat Timothy Burpoe said legislators thought Jackson was supposed to be the county's representative in the room. Burpoe said higher megawatt figures could have been obtained with a tougher stance against Noble and the towns. But because a deadline was imposed to reach the deal quickly, Burpoe said, he and some other legislators felt pressure to settle for a deal even though the county ended up with the smallest share.

Members of several area labor unions plan a protest today against UPC Wind, a wind farm company developing projects in the Cohocton area. Tom Stephens, business development specialist for the International Union of Operating Engineers in Rochester, said the protest concerns what he called "UPC Wind's plan to use non-union, out-of-state labor" to construct the wind farms.

GARDEN CITY, N.Y. --In the end, it was the cost that blew away the wind farm. Long Island Power Authority Chairman Kevin Law confirmed Thursday that the utility is scrapping plans to create a $700 million wind energy park with 40 turbines in an 8-square-mile area in the Atlantic Ocean, not far from Jones Beach. "It's just too expensive," Law told The Associated Press. "It's not going to work. ...This is an economically based decision. We didn't even have to consider environmental or aesthetic concerns."

Sen. Charles J. Fuschillo Jr. (R-Merrick) expressed concern that the cost figure, which has nearly doubled since the winning bid of $356 million three years ago, won't stop at $700 million. "I'm estimating this project will be nearly $1 billion by the time it's said and done," Fuschillo said. "That's too high. We collectively say, 'Enough.'" He called on LIPA chairman Kevin Law to shelve the project. Yesterday Law said, "I share Chuck's concerns with the costs of this project and look forward to discussing it with him soon." Fuschillo and others at the gathering stressed that a stand against the project was not a stance against wind power, or renewable energy. "While I really believe that renewable energy sources have to be part of our future, they have to be economically feasible, and I don't believe this project will be," he said. LIPA has commissioned a study examining the costs of the project and contrasting them with other such projects around the globe. LIPA chief executive Richard Kessel on Wednesday said he respected the senators' comments on the matter and believed the study would examine some of the issues. It's due out in coming weeks.

The town of Carrollton has joined the growing list of places in which energy companies are thinking about building electricity-generating wind turbines. Five local communities have been approached by wind energy companies that want to put up wind turbines. The turbines are giant windmills perched on steel towers 300 to 400 feet high. Many area residents have spoken out against the turbines as a blight on the skyline, create noise pollution and are a danger to migrating birds. But in Carrollton residents say they'll welcome the large electric windmills as long as they generate cash for the town that will help cut taxes.

MALONE "" Two wind-energy facilities under review in Franklin County would pump between $25 million and $75 million into the local economy during construction and $1.45 million to $3.8 million a year after that.

A proposed payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement with a wind farm developer is on the agenda for the Madison County Industrial Development Agency's Thursday meeting, though there's no guarantee board members will discuss the matter again after county supervisors previously rejected the six-figure offer.