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The exit of Spanish wind developer Iberdrola Renewables from the town of Hammond will create a feeling of relief for the majority of residents who have felt the intrusion of this foreign conglomerate into the affairs of this small rural community was unwelcome.
The lawsuit is nothing less than a crude attempt to stifle the free speech of citizens regarding their government and about public policy. Is BP involved in this? BP has used proxies in the past in the town of Cape Vincent, so it is reasonable to believe they are very aware of the suit and may have even encouraged it.
Say no to the corporate takeover of our government at the expense of the people! Stop corporate welfare! End the Production Tax Credit for Big Wind. Taking money from hard-working American taxpayers and ratepayers to put into the pockets of multi-national, multi-billion dollar corporations is complete insanity that must stop!
While Great Lakes Offshore Wind met its demise last year with its 52 proposed wind turbines in Lake Erie, Lake Erie Alternative Power is poised to place more than twice as many 500-foot wind turbines our lake.
[Windfall is] a reminder that whenever a virtually unregulated industry (as in this case) offers capitalists a chance to defraud the little guy and make a bundle, they'll do it. It's a tantalizing case study that suggests ordinary people still have the power to steer a course between faceless bureaucracies and greedy capitalists, but only just - and only if they can find a way to overcome their differences and work together.
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USA]
"Windfall" left me disheartened. I thought wind energy was something I could believe in. This film suggests it's just another corporate flim-flam game. Of course, the documentary could be mistaken, and there are no doubt platoons of lawyers, lobbyists and publicists to say so. How many of them live on wind farms?
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USA]
It was pretty clear all along that building a wind farm in the waters of Lake Erie or Lake Ontario would be way too expensive.
What we didn't know until last week was that it wouldn't just be way too expensive: It would have been a boondoggle of epic proportions.
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Impact on Economy]
Without Kessel, the offshore wind farm's leading advocate, to shepherd it through the Power Authority, the project quickly lost momentum, just like a spinning turbine when the wind suddenly turns calm. And there were plenty of forces pushing against the project.
When Horizon Wind LLC made significant changes like this in their proposed Dairy Hills project in Perry, Horizon was required by state law to do a Supplemental DEIS. Why should the rules be any different for Invenergy? What possible reason could the Orangeville Town Board have to allow Invenergy to bypass correct procedure?
Obviously, the citizens of Orangeville who wish to comment on Invenergy's FEIS have in no way been given ample time or opportunity to read this massive, technical document that is still not posted completely.
Those environmentalists might applaud renewable energy in the abstract, but enthusiasm sometimes fades when actual projects move off the drawing boards.
Today, 29 states and the District of Columbia mandate ambitious increases in renewable energy. New York's goal is 30 percent of the energy mix from renwables by 2015.
Apparently the wind's gone out of the sails of the push to place wind turbines off the shores of Lake Ontario.
But there's no official word, and who can be surprised, given the secrecy with which the New York Power Authority has operated this project all along.
The amendments, if accepted, will probably send the Horse Creek project back to the drawing board or beyond. Atlantic Wind LLC, a subsidiary of Spanish energy giant Iberdrola, has submitted a draft environmental impact statement to the Clayton Planning Board and review of that document has begun.
Since this down time is unpredictable, Chateaugay can supply reliable electricity to ZERO homes. The low average value of NNY wind speeds coupled with a very high degree of variability means Northern NY is NOT suitable for economically viable nor dependable industrial wind installations.
EverPower's good-neighbor agreement requires residents not only to accept the noise (for an annual payment of $1,500), they must also allow EverPower to record a noise easement on their land with the county clerk. This will be a burden on the land for all subsequent buyers. If a landowner finds the noise is intolerable, it will be difficult to sell and move.
The Cape Vincent Planning Board and Town Council have majorities with contracts with either British Petroleum or Acciona altogether worth around $200,000 per year for 20 years. These contracts include loyalty oaths swearing "to help in all permitting processes."
Wayne Casler's resignation as supervisor of the Herkimer County town of Litchfield should serve as a lesson for the larger community when it comes to public officials and conflicts of interest. But even more important, it once again demonstrates why adding another layer of government approval for wind turbine projects would be in the best interest of small communities.
Now in the 2010 school board linkage meeting and follow-up October meeting, local politicians are wanting to spend our tax dollars budgeting the wind turbine study into three local budgets instead of just one, to fund, "the want," the wind turbine (with most of the property owners, the taxpayers, left in the dark about what the politicians are really doing in spending our tax $$$$$$).
Therefore, Invenergy, when Orangeville municipal officers put their personal financial agenda and business dealings with a multinational million-dollar corporation, before the health, safety and welfare of the people of Orangeville, forming zoning laws that facilitate this very same business project that is located in Orangeville, that is what I, in my opinion, call the "selling out of Orangeville."
Even though bidding has closed and the authority is on its way to picking a developer (or developers), there is still very little solid information on this Great Lakes Offshore Wind project. What little information has been made available is still very concerning to me and to many others.
It also contradicts what some people think are the benefits. Below I have compiled my list of "myths versus facts".