Save The River, the leading grassroots advocacy organization working to protect the St. Lawrence River, submitted these comments to the Town of Cape Vincent, NY encouraging adoption of a one-year moratorium on all wind energy development.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) reviewed the Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement (DGEIS) for PPM's Horse Creek wind facility proposed for the New York towns of Clayton and Orleans, Jefferson County. The project consists of approximately 62 wind turbines (130 MW) with 54 turbines in the Town of Clayton and 8 turbines in the Town of Orleans. The project scope also includes construction of two permanent meteorological (met) towers, an operations and maintenance facility, approximately 16 miles of gravel access roads and approximately 28 miles of buried electric collection lines, and an interconnection substation adjacent to the existing electric transmission line.

This Final Generic Environmental Impact Statement (FGEIS) has been prepared for the Ecogen, LLC (Ecogen) Prattsburgh/Italy Wind Farm Project (Project) on the behalf of the Lead Agency, the Steuben County Industrial Development Agency (SCIDA). The FGEIS is prepared pursuant to the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQR), Environmental Conservation Law, Article 8, 6NYCRR Part 617, and its implementing regulations.

Wind turbines to produce electricity on a large scale – “wind farms” – are currently being proposed for parts of Tug Hill. Large-scale wind farms are a relatively new occurrence in the Northeast, and since they are new there are many questions that do not have clear answers.