Municipal officials riding a tour bus this week along Route 39 toward the town of Eagle first spotted several 300-feet-high wind turbines at a distance of about two miles away. A tour of the Bliss wind turbine park, sponsored by the Southern Tier West Regional Planning and Development Board, was set up to provide town officials in Cattaraugus County a variety of aspects on wind turbines. Proposals for wind turbine farms have been reviewed locally in communities that include the towns of Allegany and Carrollton as well as across the state line in Potter County. ..."This is my view now," he said pointing to the large wind turbines looming high above the tree lines. "This looks like the ‘War of the Worlds' out here, I mean I previously had a pristine, gorgeous view. "I can see 13 of these (wind towers) out here, and they say ‘your property value is going to increase' but do you think that's going to increase my property value," he asked.

The majority of the Gaines Wind Advisory Committee said at Wednesday's meeting that they don't believe wind energy is in the best interest of the Town of Gaines. ...Concerned Gaines residents filled the town hall to capacity Wednesday evening as they listened to prepared statements from each of the committee members listing worries about noise, costs, property values, vibration effects and the impact on wildlife. Of the eight-member board, two said they would be in favor of the 400-foot wind turbines. The remaining, including alternate Ted Swierznski sitting in for Royce Klatt, voiced opposition to the towers, while acknowledging their research is incomplete. "Federal and state subsidies are the only reason wind energy is taking a foothold in this country," said advisory member Marilynn Miller.

Megan McElligott and Jason Gotte feel as though nobody is considering the possible negative impact of Airtricity’s plans to construct 55 to 80 wind turbines in the towns of Gaines and Albion within the next few years. To educate others about the environmental and economic impacts of the 400-foot towers, the couple will host an informational meeting Saturday at the Quality Work Life hall in Albion. Speaker Jerry Borkholder from the Wind Tower Committee in Hamlin, who is considered a local expert on wind energy issues, will address the topic and answer questions. “I’ve been on the Internet reading everything and anything I can and I’m really very concerned,” said McElligott, a home health care aide. “I don’t think this is the future. If this is the future, we’re going to have a lot of problems.”

... despite opposition, the big windmills are becoming a reality. In Wyoming County, in particular, it could be possible within the next decade to look from most of the major hills to the next ones and see wind turbines.

Major players in the Jordanville Wind Farm controversy were left confused and disappointed following last week's decision by the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) to approve the proposal with stipulations. Landowners, taxpayers and members of the Friends of Renewable Energy (FORE) were outraged with the decision to cut 19 turbines from the proposal, and also voiced concerns with the wording of the decision.

Some residents are furious that the landscape that they have known and loved will soon be gone. "The skies are beautiful. You'll get the northern lights and you don't have all these flashing lights around. And now with the substation going in, the light off that at night, I'm going to need curtains in the house!" said LaClair

With the talk of a wind farm sprouting in Sullivan County, New York, some members of the Upper Delaware Council (UDC) have expressed concern for the visual impact they could make on the Delaware River in this section....Phil Chase, who represents the NY Town of Deerpark on the UDC, interjected that he knew of "people who receive $6,000 a year to pollute a beautiful area with minimum electricity generated." He commented that wind farms require a road connecting turbines, cutting through the land, where trespass then becomes an issue. Noise is also a factor, added Charles Wieland, the UDC delegate from the Town of Tusten.

Jesse Ausubel, a professor of environmental science and director of the Human Environment programme at Rockefeller University in New York, found that enormous stretches of countryside would have to be converted into intensive farmland or developed with buildings and access roads for renewable energy plants to make a significant contribution to global energy demands.

A state Supreme Court judge has ruled the Wind Power Ethics Group (WPEG) and one of its members can challenge the town Zoning Board of Appeals' decision that a proposed wind turbines project is a utility subject only to a site plan review. WPEG is asking a judge to vacate a Feb. 28 determination that the project is a utility within the meaning of the town's zoning law and therefore is a permitted use subject to site plan review in the town's agricultural/residential zoning district.

Photo simulations submitted for LIPA's proposed offshore wind farm offer a limited, possibly undersized view of the 40-turbine array as it will appear in South Shore waters, a town supervisor charged yesterday. After a study it commissioned last fall by a third-party imaging firm, the Town of Babylon produced its own photo simulations of the wind farm and found that, by comparison, the turbines portrayed in the Long Island Power Authority's submissions "look smaller," according to a report expected to be released today. The study found the LIPA photo analysis, conducted by an outside company, to be "incomplete," lacking in resolution and a range of lens depictions to provide a breadth of viewpoints. Babylon Supervisor Steve Bellone said the analysis, combined with a study his office conducted of the estimated construction costs of the project, lead to concerns.

JORDANVILLE - More than 60 400-foot-high wind turbines along the landscape weren't part of the plan when the Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Monastery was founded more than 75 years ago, monastery officials say. The few-hundred acre spiritual retreat settled where it did because of the area's isolation and beautiful landscape, and an "army" of turbines from the proposed Jordanville Wind project are not welcome, said the Rev. Luke Murianka, deputy abbot of the monastery. "This would greatly affect our whole mission here," Murianka said.

In an historic vote on March 13, 2007, after months of controversy and research, the Bovina Town Board banned wind turbines from this scenic Catskill town. Bovina is the first town in the Catskills to take a clear position against industrial wind development. The Bovina vote follows a twelve-month moratorium during which residents made their views known to town officials through open meetings sponsored by the board, hundreds of letters, a town survey, a petition, and a poll sponsored by industrial wind opponents. The vote was three in favor of a ban, one opposed. About sixty people attended the public hearing before the vote.

To help the public understand more about the impacts wind developments will have on our local economies in Steuben County, the Steuben Greens have organized a panel discussion on wind issues with five local activists on Thursday, January 18, 2007 at 7:00 pm. The program will be held at 198 Main St. in Hornell. Brad Jones from Naples will speak on his research into the promises of wind power. Steve Trude and James Hall from Cohocton will update us on the efforts of their group, Cohocton Wind Watch, to get more accountability in the DEIS process. Valerie Gardner and Jack Ossont from Yates County will discuss how their group, Democracy NY, works with local communities who want to reclaim decisionmaking powers.

Will sinkholes ultimately sink the proposed Jordanville wind project? Opponents of the project are hoping so. Members of the Advocates for Stark group are claiming the karst topography of the region could suffer serious environmental impacts from construction of the project’s 75 wind turbines, putting the water supply at risk. Karst topography is defined as an area of bedrock - usually limestone or dolomite - which is capable of being dissolved by surface water or ground water. Typical karst features include sinkholes, ravines and underground streams.

Mr. Mackay is the Policy Director of the Preservation League of New York in Albany whose objective it is to protect the diverse and rich heritage of historic buildings and landscapes. He will speak on Tuesday, July 18, 2006, at 7:00 P.M. at the Homestead Event Center (the former Roxy Music Store), Batavia City Center, Main Street, Batavia, NY.

But I was sitting at my kitchen table in North Buffalo, far from the wind farms of the Southern Tier, and such distance makes for simple, black-and-white comprehension. There are places in Western New York where wind energy isn’t so clear a choice. Places with names like Perry, Sheldon and Arkwright, rural towns perched atop the high glacial ridges to the east and south of the city, whose landscapes might soon be dominated by hundreds of towering, 400-foot windmills. As wind companies eye their windswept fields and make overtures to local town boards, divisions run deeper and deeper between citizens who disagree on the merits of wind farm development in their backyards. In such locales, the gray areas of wind development come into sharp focus.

Eric and Kyle Hosmer of Howard address the Howard Town Board meeting Wednesday night and asked that a letter they read to the board be placed in the official minutes. The request was denied for the time being. As a courtesy, we are printing portions of that letter here.
Editor's Note: The complete letter follows.

For those who live among the towers, the consequences of the development are palpable. The construction required building new roads and widening existing ones to make room for oversize vehicles. Hundreds of workers moved into town or stayed in trailers on the job site during the summer rush. The rural landscape was transformed into an industrial setting. Where stands of poplars and fields of corn and hay covered the plateau, the smooth lines of the light gray towers and steady rotation of the rotors now define the view. And the noises changed. The unobstructed wind has always been the dominant sound on the plateau. Now, the whoosh of the wind is mixed with the hum of the machines and a mechanical whomp of the blades turning.