Has the controversy over wind power blown away in Howard?

Fewer than 20 residents came out to a Steuben County Industrial Development Agency hearing Thursday evening on a proposed Payment In Lieu of Taxes Agreement with EverPower Renewables, a New York-based company planning to build 25 wind turbines south of Howard. Two people made comments to SCIDA Executive Director James Sherron.

By comparison, a similar hearing in Cohocton Jan. 18, a Friday morning meeting, was attended by more than 50 residents, with 20 making comments to SCIDA.

Big trucks carrying thousands of pounds on dirt roads can cause big road problems, as Cohocton highway Superintendent Tom Simons knows well.

At this week's Cohocton town board meeting, several residents complained about the conditions of the roads to Simons.

Repairing the roads, however, has been an on-going process for wind turbine contractor Mortenson Construction, Simons said. Mortenson is the main contractor on the 50-turbine industrial wind development on Pine, Lent and Dutch hills by UPC Wind Management.

COHOCTON -- UPC Wind, developer of two Steuben County wind farms, has agreed to pay $14.5 million in lieu of taxes over the next 20 years.

The company announced the agreement with the Steuben County Industrial Development Agency on Monday.

The county agency will administer the payments, which will go to the town of Cohocton, the Wayland-Cohocton Central School District and the Avoca School District, UPC Wind said in a news release.

UPC Wind, a leading independent North American wind power company, today announced that it has finalized an agreement with the Steuben County Industrial Development Authority (SCIDA), establishing the second of two major economic packages for the region as part of its Cohocton and Dutch Hill Wind Power
Projects. The agreement, called a Payment In Lieu Of Taxes, or PILOT payment, will be administered by SCIDA and used to provide more than $14 million in important revenue and services to the Town of Cohocton, the Wayland-Cohocton School District and the Avoca School District.

North Texas Wind Resistance Alliance
Promoting the Truth about Wind Energy

Who's behind it?

Powerful corporate and financial interests

When you understand that wind energy does not work on a "utility-scale", the next questions are "Why are they doing it?" and ultimately "Who is behind it?"

Simply put, it's a corporate tax-avoidance scam, put in place by investment banking lobbyists, energy industry lobbyists, and the late Ken Lay and his Enron Wind subsidiary. Through manipulation in Congress and state legislatures, they have created a guaranteed high-return investment program, heavily subsidized by taxpayers and utility ratepayers, to benefit themselves at the expense of the public. They then market this scheme to the victimized public and gullible politicians as an environmentally-friendly "renewable energy" program, and have the "big" environmental groups that they support and sustain join in a chorus of approval.

January 31, 2008

Dear Local Government Official:

As you may know, two bills have been introduced in the state Legislature that would re-authorize Article X of the Public Service Law which is designed to streamline the siting review and approval process for major electric generating facilities. (A brief summary of the proposed provisions is shown on Page 2). Wind farm projects that meet certain thresholds established for power plants are included in these proposals, with the process governed by a statewide siting board.

January 28, 2008

Wayland-Cohocton Central School Board
2350 Rte 63 N
Wayland, NY 14572

RE: UPC SCIDA PILOT approval not required for Wayland-Cohocton School District

Dear School Board members:

Submitted this date to the Wayland-Cohocton School Board the following documents:

1) Press Release January 10, 2008 from attorney David Miller
2) List of SCIDA Board members and their home addresses

COHOCTON - Residents of the Village of Cohocton are now able to see what a wind turbine looks like in their own backyards.

UPC Wind Management's wind turbine project on Dutch Hill is moving along quickly, according to Rick Towner, the company's local public outreach coordinator, and the blades and 420-foot-tall turbines at sites 2A and 4A are up.

“Those two went up last Thursday,” Towner said. “After everything was all set, it only took 15 or 20 minutes to get them up and aligned properly.”

Plans to put wind turbines on two Steuben County hills moved another step forward Wednesday night.

The town planning board gave the developer UPC Wind three permits. These are not permits to build wind turbines. They're permits for towers that measure wind speed to make sure the site is good for a turbine. Eventually turbines will go on the Cohocton and Dutch Hills.

The entire project still doesn't have the green light. Many people who live in the area are still very divided over the issue.

Bath, N.Y. -- Judge Marianne Furfure heard arguments on May 8th brought by Cohocton Wind Watch, an anti-windmill group that says the Town of Cohocton did not comply with the State Environmental Quality Review Act when it changed its zoning regulations to make way for a project propsed by developer UPC Wind.

UPC Wind wants to build fifty 500-foot wind turbines in the hillsides scattered in and around Cohocton. They will lease farmland from local farmers and then sell that power to local energy distributors.