Cohocton Wind Watch is a community citizen organization dedicated to preserve the public safety, property values, economic viability, environmental integrity and quality of life in Cohocton, NY and in surrounding townships. Neighbors committed to public service in order to achieve a reasonable vision for a Finger Lakes region worthy of future generations.
Nina Pierpont’s Research
Nina Pierpont’s Research
The spectre of global warming and the political panic surrounding it has triggered a goldrush for renewable energy sources without an open discussion of the merits and drawbacks of each. In The Wind Farm Scam Dr Etherington argues that in the case of wind power the latter far outweigh the former. Wind turbines cannot generate enough energy to reduce global CO2 levels to a meaningful degree; what’s more wind power is by nature intermittent and cannot generate a steady output, ...
You're invited to attend the long-awaited State Environmental Quality Review for the Schlumberger natural gas facility Wednesday in Horseheads.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has issued its decision in State of Connecticut, et al. v. American Electric Power Company Inc., et al. (Case Nos. 05-5104-CV and 05-5119-CV), finding that plaintiffs (several states and land trusts)...
Prattsburgh, (NY) – A Prattsburgh Town board member is accused of shoplifting. On Tuesday, Hornell police say 41 year old Staci Bottoni was arrested at the Wegmans in Hornell. They they're not saying what she's accused of stealing. The town supervisor says he doesn't know if she will be reprimanded by the town board. He says this action is out of Bottoni's character. Bottoni is a school bus driver in the Prattsburgh school district. She was on the clock when the arrest happened.
Visit BREAKING ALL THE RULES http://batr.org/
Visit BREAKING ALL THE RULES http://batr.org/
STATEWIDE -- State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo launches an investigation into the alleged actions of two wind power companies developing wind farms in New York State. Subpoenas were served on First Wind -- formerly known as UPC Wind -- and Noble Environmental Power, LLC.
According to court documents from the Appellate Division, Fourth Judicial Department of New York, the court chose not dismiss an Article 78 lawsuit Tuesday following a motion by Hatch. According to court documents provided by Arthur Giacalone, an attorney for petitioner Gerry Hedman, the court chose to continue hearing the case and will accept additional filings.
The board will invite representatives from the Prattsburgh and Naples central schools, the Steuben County Industrial Development Agency, and the county to discuss their issues in executive session at 7 p.m. June 24 at the town hall.
The CPA includes 14 member groups so far, including Citizens for a Healthy Rural Neighborhood of Perry. They’re primarily based in Western New York, though the CPA is a statewide group, with other members in New Hampshire and Ohio.
Wind farm opponents have called on Steuben County District Attorney John Tunney to investigate their wide-ranging allegations against a county agency, municipalities and individual officials.
Cohocton Wind Watch, a group opposed to wind farms already under construction, has called for a grand jury investigation of suspected criminal conduct by both wind developers and public officials.
Premo said the town agreement was frequently referred to in discussions and documents setting up the PILOT. “This was structured in a way to divert money away from the districts,” Premo said. “There is no indication they will do anything differently (in May).”
When commercial wind turbines were first proposed in Brad Jones’ hometown of Italy, N.Y., he thought it was a good thing. As an environmentalist, he had looked into purchasing a small agricultural windmill at his farm for its clean, renewable energy. Then he started asking questions. Semi-retired, he began to spend close to 40 hours a week researching its potential effects. Others in his community joined in and they began networking with residents in areas facing the same issue with the Citizens Power Alliance. What they uncovered made them feel quite differently about the 400-plus-foot turbines, Jones said.
No decision was made in a lawsuit filed by the Prattsburgh and Naples school districts against a payment-in-lieu of taxes agreement approved by the Steuben County Industrial Development Agency in January.
Under fire over accusations he and other town and county officials have endorsed generous tax breaks and cut sweetheart deals ‘with the Massachusetts-based UPC Corp. wind farm developer, Prattsburgh Supervisor Harold McConnell faces further criticism following a vote last week to condemn and seize private land for the project.
This is the second registration-related charge to be filed against an equipment driver on the project. A driver of a Mortenson grader was charged in mid-March with operating without a license plate.
I am pleased to inform you that UPC Wind is changing its name to First Wind effective today, May 1, 2008.
UPC Wind became First Wind this morning, according to John Lamontagne, director of corporate communications for the company. “Nobody knew about it because we didn’t tell anyone,” he said.
“Laws are being broken, deals are being made under the table," said another landowner James Hall. "This project will not generate any meaningful electricity. We do not have the wind in this area,” said Hall.
Watch the WETN Channel 18 TV Video on the Industrial Wind site, UPC Videos
"Our town board has declared eminent domain and is taking property away from landowners in this town, something that hopefully will cause a lot of groups to join us in a lawsuit against them." said Nancy Wahlstrom.
“It’s supposed to benefit not just one of them, but all of them,” Primo said Thursday. Prattsburgh Central School Superintendent Joseph Rumsey said the action is designed to give the board of education more time to study its options. Prattsburgh town and SCIDA officials worked “largely behind the scenes” to prevent the school districts from participating in the agreements according to the Naples complaint.
Two local school district claim they aren’t getting their fair share of tax payments from a wind farm development in the Prattsburgh area. Charging deliberate attempts to prevent them from receiving proper payments, two local school districts filed lawsuits recently against the Town of Prattsburgh and Steuben County Industrial Development Agency, and other agencies.
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.<BR>
The deadline for comments on a draft environmental impact statement for the proposed Noble Allegany Wind Park power generation project has been extended. The new deadline on the 67-turbine project in the Allegany County towns of Centerville and Rushford is April 17.
Road construction damage to Cohocton roads by UPC Wind Project
One of Reunion Power’s 164-foot meteorological towers designed to measure wind strength was apparently blown down in a storm recently. Andy Minnig, an East Hill resident and one of the founders of the Advocates for Cherry Valley which opposed Reunion’s plan to put as many as two dozen wind turbines there, said his wife noticed following a wind and ice storm that the normally visible tower suddenly wasn’t there anymore.
A Blog about lwind legal decisions.
In November, the anti-industrial turbine candidates were elected in fairly close votes, presumably with a mandate to proceed to change course on the law the town board had passed. And, indeed, that is what is happening, New town board members, keeping their campaign promise, are proposing to rescind Meredith's wind-energy law and ban industrial wind turbines.
We had said the Town of Cohocton and surrounding school districts will get another $14.5 million a year over the next 20 years from area wind farm projects. Well, the town and the school districts will get the $14 million, but spread out over the next 20 years.
"IDAs are supposed to create jobs," DiNapoli said. "When they report on job creation, taxpayers should know that the numbers are right. Given the way IDAs are currently reporting information, there is no way of knowing that. These measures will make IDAs more accountable to the public they serve and establish clear standards that IDAs must follow, or they risk serious consequences."
James Hall, a spokesman for windmill project opponent Cohocton Wind Watch, said the figures in the new agreement conflict with earlier information provided to the group by the Industrial Development Agency. "A quick calculation on my part (from provided figures) shows the pilot comes to about $5.7 million," Hall said. "That's quite a stretch from the $14 million in their press release."
One of the dirty little secrets of renewable energy sources is that every one of them, to varying degrees, will drive the cost of energy up, not down. For you and me, and for business. That would be the real price for less reliance on foreign oil and fossil fuels generally, and for shrinking the carbon footprint that's turning our planet into a greenhouse.
The proposed takeover of Rochester Gas and Electric's parent company by a company from Spain is not getting unanimous support locally.
In a related matter, the watchdog, Inspector General Kristine Hamann, found that senior officials of that regulatory panel, the Public Service Commission, met with an executive for a utility who had been nominated to be their boss to discuss promotions. She said they also gave that executive a document that probably violated agency policy.
Cohocton Town Board member Wayne Hunt announced this week that he is sending a letter to wind company UPC. Hunt says that the Town of Cohocton will be suing wind company UPC, if the town of Cohocton does not get a proper response from the wind company. Hunt did not specify why the Cohocton Town Board was interested in suing UPC.
I arrived at the conversation on wind energy via attending a local Board of Education meeting where the Stueben County Industrial Development Agency (SCIDA) was informing the Naples BOE of a proposed PILOT. The SCIDA chairman, James Sherron and the representative of the Wind Project, Rick Towner displayed an arrogance was as breathtaking as it was puzzling. Why would these men appear before a School Board asking for financial relief and yet be so rude and condescending? I decided to do a little research.
The staff of New York State’s Public Service Commission has cast a shadow on the proposed sale of RG&E’S parent company, Energy East, to Iberdrola, a Spanish company.
The District Attorney, New York State Inspector General and the New York State Attorney General have started investigations related to members of the Burke Town Council and its wind ordinance, and similar issues across New York State. My office is currently examining concerns brought to my attention," Franklin County District Attorney Derek Champagne said. "The State Inspector General has asked to have information forwarded to her office." Complaints of impropriety caught the attention of the District Attorney. "A number of citizens have contacted my office regarding Burke and other towns and their wind energy regulations," Champagne said. "Because of the on-going investigation, I really can't comment on specifics." Champagne and Assistant Attorney Glenn MacNeill attended a meeting in New York City on Thursday to discuss the issue with state officials. ...Residents in Burke have raised questions about the ethics of town board members regarding their actions on the proposed ordinance regulating wind power.
“I'm going to make you a promise today,” Hall said. “There will be no more Article 78's. The three that we have pending, that's it. “But, there sure is going to be other litigation,” he added. “And it's not going to be on procedural changes that could have been done differently, we're not asking for a municipality to do something over. We're going to look at fraud. We're going to look at criminal conduct.”
(January 18, 2008) — The state Public Service Commission staff is advising against the proposed takeover of Energy East, the parent of Rochester Gas and Electric, by the Spanish utility Iberdrola SA. The recommendation doesn't mean the $4.5 billion deal won't go through, but it does put up a barrier that the companies will need to overcome. The PSC staff said that ownership by Iberdrola wouldn't benefit customers either in terms of rates or service reliability.
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