This open letter to representatives of British Petroleum and Acciona/AES appeared in New York's Watertown Daily Times newspaper in response to questionable business practices by the developers seeking to build wind facilities in Cape Vincent, New York. The full letter can be accessed by clicking on the link below.

Memorandum and order issued by the NY State Supreme Court in the matter involving a request by property owners in Prattsburgh to annul the decision by the Town Board of the Town of Prattsburgh to condemn a portion of the petitioners' property in order to create certain easements for Windfarm Prattsburgh, LLC, to place underground electricity lines for a wind farm project.

The links below display a Burke, NY parcel map of those properties known to be encumbered with wind lease agreements.

UPC Wind (First Wind) is seeking landowners in Prattsburgh, NY to negotiate this easement agreement to permit the company an exclusive and permanent right of way and easement to build, rebuild, relocate, operate, repair, maintain, renew and at their pleasure remove underground transmission lines for purposes of transmitting electricity, communications systems etc. The full agreement can be accessed by clicking on the link below.

A Franklin County Grand Jury is investigating town officials' financial ties with wind farms. A town councilman in Burke, in northern Franklin County, has sued to quash a subpoena issued by the district attorney as part of the grand jury process. Jacob Resneck reports.

Over the past three months the Franklin County District Attorney's Office has been examining allegations of certain improprieties including self-dealing, conflicts of interest and violations of statutes on the part of various local elected officials in Franklin County. The recently disclosed unethical conduct by our state's highest elected official has heightened the need for a closer review of all available ethical safeguards in order to reestablish and maintain the Public's confidence in our elected officials. ...Our investigation has revealed several contracts, easements, lease option agreements, cooperation memoranda and other types of documents which disclose relationships existing between elected officials and certain third parties in Franklin County (as well as other elected officials in other Counties) which, when allegedly coupled with certain decision making and board action, may be in violation of General Municipal Law (GML) 805-a(1)(c) and (1)(d).

From Lake Ontario to Lake Champlain, wind projects are dividing small towns struggling to balance the interests of town residents with the ambitious proposals brought by wind companies. Now, allegations of conflicts-of-interest in at least one Franklin County town have attracted the scrutiny of the district attorney and state investigators. Jacob Resneck reports.

The document accessible at the link below contains portions of four agreements entered into between officials of the Town of Burke, NY and two separate wind development LLCs.

Petitioners are residents and landowners in the Towns of Warren and Stark, who challenge two special use permits issued in June of 2007 by the respondent town boards authorizing the construction of the Jordanville Wind Power Project. This Article 78 petition seeks to annul and vacate actions taken and determinations made by the respondent town boards, alleging a violation of, inter alia, the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) and the Open Meetings Law. The proposed project is for the construction a 68 turbine wind farm in the [*2]subject towns in Herkimer County which, when fully operational, will generate 136 megawatts of electric power from the wind which will be introduced into the New York State Electric Grid.

The Department of Environmental Conservation has released for public review proposed Guidelines for Conducting Bird and Bat Studies at Commercial Wind Energy Projects. These guidelines inform potential wind developers of the information DEC needs about wind farm sites to assess impacts to birds and bats. The guidelines were developed through a stakeholder process sponsored by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority which included industry representatives as well as bird and bat biologists from government agencies, academia and non-governmental environmental groups. Comments will be received until March 7, 2008 via mail to Brianna Gary, NYSDEC Bureau of Habitat, 625 Broadway 5th Floor, Albany, NY 12233-4756 or via email.