Jefferson County legislators will consider Tuesday asking that the proposed Galloo Island Wind Farm transmission line be run completely underwater to Oswego County, rather than running over 20 miles of land in southern Jefferson County. Legislator Barry M. Ormsby, R-Belleville, said he's going to offer a resolution to ask the Public Service Commission to "give serious consideration to the aquatic line versus the above-land option." ...On Friday, Upstate NY Power said it will investigate the underwater route further.

Lewis County is set to lose millions of dollars in Empire Zone money, but the head of the state's Empire Development Agency says that could change. Each year, the county has received $2 million in Empire Zone money to use toward its budget. Without the credits, that amount shrivels to $500,000.

A wind energy development company has sued a second town board in an attempt to force through a large wind farm without the approval of local elected leaders. Ecogen Wind LLC filed a lawsuit Monday against the town of Prattsburgh, Steuben County, claiming town leaders have improperly thrown roadblocks infront of the wind farm. The company brought a similar legal action this month against the neighboring town of Italy in Yates County.

Wind developer Ecogen has filed another lawsuit against a local municipality in an attempt to erect electricity-producing wind turbines. The lawsuit was recently filed in state Supreme Court in Rochester against the Prattsburgh Town Board and other town officials. It is similar to legal action the company is taking against the town of Italy in Yates County, which has refused to grant Ecogen permission to build wind turbines there.

The town Planning Board asked the Town Council not to hold a public hearing next week on a proposed wind development zoning ordinance, citing missing information. ..."On initial blush through the law, it looks satisfactory," Chairman Richard J. Edsall said. "But after a more thorough examination, I saw there was an error made in the law, a section left out."

Thanks to the foresight and enlightened public policy of the Yorkshire Town Board, the 30 megawatt (MW) project (approximately 15 turbines) proposed in Yorkshire has blown away. Nowhere in New York state have turbines been erected prior to the enactment of a local town law. Fortunately, the Yorkshire Board did an extensive cost-benefit analysis and correctly determined the negative impacts of industrial wind turbines in residential areas far exceed the limited economic benefits to the community.

With yesterday's counting of absentee ballots that pushed Urban Hirschey ahead of five-term incumbent Thomas Rienbeck, the three towns where commercial wind-development policy became something of a local referendum have sent a loud and clear message to wind farm developers and their rabid supporters: wind politics is local. ...Hammond resident Brooke Stark assessed the town election and why the incumbent board was rejected in the Nov. 4 story in the Times: "They really have done a lot," she said. "But I think they got complacent and were not interested in educating the community about something they'd already made up their minds about. They wanted the wind law to go forward and that was that. People got fed up with that, and every time we felt that our voices were being shut down, it provided more impetus to get active."

I see that the Jeff-Lewis Board of Cooperative Educational Services received $163,760 to build a wind turbine of its very own. I know Indian River is drooling to get a wind turbine of its very own too. Evidently this is the new must-have for schools around the north country, regardless of how local populations keep working to zone them out of their communities. It's OK though, these are small turbines. ...At that rate, it will take 26.6 years before the turbine has saved enough money to have paid for itself.

The official count of absentee ballots Tuesday gave victory to Urban C. Hirschey in the race for town supervisor. Mr. Hirschey was down by 42 votes on Election Day but picked up 62 more votes than Democratic incumbent Thomas K. Rienbeck in absentees, 144-82. The final tally was 634-614. ...Mr. Rienbeck, who has been in office for 10 years, said most of the people who changed their registration to vote for Mr. Hirschey were rich seasonal residents who oppose wind farms.

Jefferson County's Board of Legislators slowed down its consideration of the payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement for the proposed Galloo Island Wind Farm. ...Chairman Barry M. Ormsby, R-Belleville, said representatives of the Jefferson County Industrial Development Agency and Galloo Island's developer, Upstate NY Power Corp., would come to the meeting. Mr. Ormsby said they also would allow the public to speak during privilege of the floor, though no public hearing is required.

At a public hearing on the Galloo Island Wind Farm payment-in-lieu-of-taxes deal, no one from the town of Hounsfield raised a voice in support of or in opposition to a plan that will bring $2.14 million annually to the county, town, Sackets Harbor Central School and Jefferson County Industrial Development Agency. You have to wonder why. ...Add it all up, and you can see just how much this "private sector" developer will rely on federal, state and local taxpayers to permit him to make profits. Especially galling is the extent to which local officials, especially the IDA, are doling out hard-won tax dollars to bring, at best, a handful of jobs to the region, and a short-lived flurry of construction money.

Landowners in Henderson and Ellisburg are charged up over the proposed transmission line for Galloo Island Wind Farm. They voiced their displeasure with the plan during public hearings for the Public Service Commission on Monday morning and evening in Henderson and Belleville. In fact, none of the about 50 speakers at Monday's hearings supported the project. Upstate NY Power Corp., the developer for the entire project, is seeking to build a 50.6-mile, 230-kilovolt transmission line.

A fight over whether a proposed wind turbine project bordering Naples will go forward heated up last week when the developer filed a lawsuit against the town, where 17 turbines were to go up. The Article 78 action, filed in state Supreme Court in Monroe County by developer Ecogen Wind LLC, seeks to overturn the Town Board's decision to stop the project by denying approvals and placing a moratorium on its development.

It could be the 11th hour for the Town Council, so it has decided to move ahead with an amendment to the zoning law for wind energy development. The proposed law does not contain overt restrictions on sound, either by an absolute number or by a number relative to ambient noise levels. That upsets members of the Wind Power Ethics Group, which has opposed proposed wind developments in the town and actions by town boards that have conflicts of interest. ..."It's a general policy," said Clifford J. Schneider, who is a former DEC fisheries biologist and has published peer-reviewed articles on acoustics. "But the policy never got down to specifics on measuring background sounds."

A group from New York Power Authority was in the Port City Friday afternoon to provide information regarding the Great Lakes Offshore Wind Project. Representatives from city, county and state government attended the meeting in the Council Chambers. Also in attendance were local residents as well as a handful from other counties. The group is visiting communities around the shores of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie to provide information on the proposal as well as get a feel for the pulse of the communities regarding the project.

Jefferson County homeowners, dairy farmers and small businesses will pay the price in higher taxes to subsidize tax breaks for developers of the Galloo Island Wind Farm under the terms of a tax agreement worked out with the Jefferson County Industrial Development Agency. ...It's a lousy deal for taxpayers, and it gets worse. PILOTs and other preferential treatment for developers are meant to foster job growth, but the wind farm will generate a handful of permanent jobs beyond the short-term construction work.

The payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement for the proposed Galloo Island Wind Farm would take some money that normally would go to the school district and give it to the town. The PILOT would send 50 percent to Sackets Harbor Central School District, 15 percent to the town of Hounsfield and 35 percent to Jefferson County. The three are splitting a $2.14 million pie, which will increase 2.5 percent each year for 20 years.

Iberdrola SA, the Spanish company that bought two upstate New York utilities last year in a $4.5 billion deal, now says it cannot afford to make all the investments in its gas and electric system it had promised state regulators. The two utilities, New York State Electric & Gas and Rochester Gas & Electric, are asking the state Public Service Commission if it can hold off on $77 million in required infrastructure spending this year.

Iberdrola Renewables Inc. and Environmentally Concerned Citizens Organization are trading jabs over the proposal to amend the town's zoning law for wind power facilities. Iberdrola's attorney, Douglas H. Ward, of Young, Sommer, Ward, Ritzenberg, Baker & Moore LLC, Albany, asked the town not to change the town's zoning law in a Sept. 21 letter.

The proposed Galloo Island Wind Farm is ready to agree to spend more than $2 million per year as part of a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement, but it stands to save nearly $23 million in other tax abatements. Officials from the town of Hounsfield, Sackets Harbor Central School District and Jefferson County are firming up their division of a property tax PILOT, which will generate $2.14 million per year.