Governor Spitzer's energy team has drafted the language for Article X, which governs the siting of energy plants, including wind-turbine factories. Article X as drafted is seriously flawed and a betrayal of the governor's campaign promises.

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From New York to Virginia, residents face the prospect of new high-voltage line construction after an announcement last week by the Department of Energy. Now, East Coast lawmakers are banding together in a bid to short-circuit the federal decision making it easier for power companies to build major power lines like the New York Regional Interconnect.

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For some reason, the logical alternative - having New York City produce more of its own energy and avoiding transmission lines - is not encouraged in the new Spitzer dynamic. At the same time, more alternative energy - notably wind farms - would get an expedited process. There's where the governor mostly expects to meet his goal of 25 percent of our energy needs coming from renewable sources by 2013. It's funny about wind farms, and wind energy in general. Electricity produced from wind is clean, throws no carbon in the air and uses natural forces. But it is also very expensive to produce (it's heavily subsidized), and transmission costs are another costly hurdle. Plus, a landscape full of wind farms won't put a dent in our energy needs, and aesthetically, wind farms are not for everybody everywhere.

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A new federal proposal to help electricity flow more freely could help the energy-choked East Coast. But it could also infuriate landowners, who have traditionally gotten their way in fights against utilities in Delaware. U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman last week named Delaware as part of his proposed eastern National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor. It would run from New York to Virginia, and west to Ohio. A second corridor would run through California, Arizona and Nevada.

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A grass roots coalition of nearly 100 citizens from New York, Vermont, and other states have filed a federal Anti-Trust Complaint alleging that an international cartel comprised of foreign and domestic business entities have conspired to eliminate competition in the newly emerging U.S. wind energy sector.

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The group includes 10 existing hydroelectric facilities that have been or will be upgraded, nine new wind facilities and two biomass facilities, the organizations say. The contract awards total approximately $295 million and will be paid out over a 10-year period as performance incentives for these facilities to produce and deliver electric energy to the state grid. According to NYSERDA and the commission, performance incentives will average approximately $15 per MWh.

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Gov. Eliot Spitzer unveiled a new energy strategy yesterday that relies on reducing the state's energy use by 15 percent by 2015, investing $300 million in renewable and "clean" power projects and increasing supply by enacting a law to expedite power-plant siting. Simultaneously, the state gave a big boost to wind power by awarding performance-based grants to nine new "wind farms," including three in Steuben County in western New York and one in Herkimer County in the north-central section of the state. These sites, which state officials predict will open next year, will significantly increase the state's use of wind. There are now just four large-scale wind power sites that supply power to the electricity grid, state officials said.

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Gov. Eliot Spitzer today unveiled a new energy strategy that relies on reducing energy use 15 percent by 2015, investing $300 million in renewable and "clean" power projects and increasing supply by passing a new law to expedite power-plant siting. "The result will be lower energy bills, a cleaner environment that addresses climate change and thousands of new jobs fueled by a new industry born from clean power," Spitzer said in a speech to a business group in Manhattan.

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The Long Island Power Authority's proposal to build a grid of industrial-strength wind generators a few miles into the ocean off Jones Beach is adrift. It's too expensive, and it should remain at sea.

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And, he offered a glimpse of the future by linking the profusion of energy- generating windmills in Denmark to the potential expansion here - beyond a beginning crop of windmills being set up at the old Bethlehem Steel plant. "I think you're going to see wind energy as a huge market," he said.

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I am writing in response to a letter from Roger Thurber in the February 19th edition of the Daily News. Among his praises for electric power, he refers to electricity as "the cheapest hired hand" that he could hire on the farm. Let's examine the wind power he favors so much in just those terms - as an employee, or "hired hand", of the electrical grid.

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Little Falls, NY March 8th, 2007 -- Want electricity? Don’t count on wind farms to deliver. A recent analysis of transaction data filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for the period July – September, 2006, shows that the large Maple Ridge wind facility in Lewis County produces electricity in a very erratic manner, and generally at levels far below promised output.

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This is a story about two men who forged a friendship at a nuclear power plant protest and then went on to collaborate on several sustainable energy projects, including three of the best known modern hydro projects in Vermont, over a 30-year period. Recently, the two separately embarked on wind projects in New York and Vermont. The fate of these projects couldn’t be more different: The New York wind turbines will be built this summer, while the East Haven Wind Farm in the Northeast Kingdom is effectively dead.

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At www.cohoctonfree.com we’re more interested in the facts about wind turbines than we are in politics. Will they really reduce CO2 emissions? Are they properly sited? Have the SDEIS and DEIS studies been done properly for SEQR? Is the community aware of the whole story? Are we rushing into something we’ll regret later? We’re confident that truth will eventually triumph over half-truths. Check out our “Updates” on the web and let us know what you think.

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HORNELL - The idea of wind farm development locally isn't a popular one. At least at the corner of Main and Hakes. Steuben Greens hosted a panel discussion on wind issues Thursday night, with a number of the speakers saying wind power wasn't worth it.

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A day before his first State of the State Address, Gov. Eliot Spitzer Tuesday released plans for a series of steps he said are needed to turn around the upstate economy..... Expansion of the capacity to generate electricity throughout the state, improving low-cost-power programs and making a “concerted effort’’ to increase the number of wind turbines.

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New York fell short of an early target in its multiyear effort to boost the use of wind power and other clean energy sources. The Pataki administration adopted a policy in 2004 to increase New York’s reliance on renewable energy to 25 percent by 2013. At that time, regulators set up yearly targets to increase renewable energy use in steady increments. The target for 2006 was to purchase 1.1 million megawatt hours of renewable energy. The state has fallen short of that goal by about a third, according to figures from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.

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Wind development may be hovering around Hornellsville, but it will have to wait a bit longer before landing. The Hornellsville town board extended its moratorium for six more months at its meeting Tuesday night, citing a need for further study of the issue. Supervisor Ken Isaman said the town is still working on its wind law, and also is interested to find out about a new state law that could be in effect for green power. “It may actually give more income to municipalities,” he said. “The law that was passed talks about the rest of green power, but not about windmills.” Isaman said the law appears to be a modified type of economic development zone, and it is something he believes the state Legislature will be working on during the early part of 2007.

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Yet, despite the operation of New Jersey’s small wind project since January, there is uncertainty about whether wind farms, particularly gigantic turbines positioned off the region’s coastline, will be embraced here. On Long Island, a 40-turbine project being considered off the South Shore is facing stiff resistance from opponents who argue that the turbines will damage pristine ocean views, fail to deliver cost-effective electricity and create environmental problems. In New Jersey, powerful local politicians have lined up behind wind power, where up to 80 turbines — rising 380 feet or more above the water along the South Jersey coastline — have been proposed to take advantage of the near-constant breezes.

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When the wind blows, the turbines will rock – when it doesn’t, there’s trouble. At least, for those who would put a wind farm off Long Island’s South Shore. During the hottest days of this year, as energy consumption records fell across the Island, there was nary a breeze – and not nearly enough wind to power the turbines of the Long Island Power Authority’s proposed Offshore Wind Park to their 140-megawatt capacity, according to Suffolk County Leg. Wayne Horsley, D-Babylon.

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