Stiff Opposition to Wind Farms as State Moves to Take Control of Siting
The Public Service Commission announced that it had OK’d the construction of two wind farms in Cohocton and the Dutch Hill area of Avoca, near Bath.
The D&C:
According to documents on file with the commission, there was serious opposition to the project, including from the towns of Naples, Ontario County, and Italy, Yates County.
In another part of the state, the Olean Times-Herald reports Opponents see little benefit in wind turbines
OLEAN - Wind turbines are promoted as a green, Earth-friendly energy source but the huge windmills have opponents seeing red.
More than 40 people gathered at the Olean Public Library Monday for a wind energy discussion hosted by Concerned Citizens of Cattaraugus County…
Here’s what’s got them so fired up: Article 10. The bill, backed by Gov. Spitzer, would take control for siting new wind farms out of the hands of local governments, and give it to the state. I guess they’re tired of local communities passing laws effectively prohibiting wind farms.
Again, the Times-Herald:
The bill, still being considered by the Senate and Assembly energy committees, would create a state siting commission that would approve the placement of wind farms. The siting commission’s power would supersede that of local town boards and planning boards.
The state has created similar siting commissions in the past to deal with controversial projects such as the low-level nuclear waste siting commission that toured sites in Allegany County in the 1990s.
I’ve got family in that part of the state, and they tell me this is playing as big-government liberals pushing their big-city ideas on poor, defenseless farmers. There’s some pretty well organized opposition, too. For example the Cohocton Wind Watch.
What do folks think about a state commission deciding where wind farms are going to be placed?
I think Wind farms are a great idea, and subsidies, in theory, make sense, since windmills are valuable not just for the electricity they create, but for the coal plants they don’t create, but they normally get paid just for the former feature.
I don’t like the idea of state control in general, but as far as I know now, that’s the only way to get around stubborn town NIMBYism.
I’m afraid that corporations are going to abuse this to bilk the government. Good thing Spitzer is in charge: I’d be much more worried about corruption if, for example, Joe Bruno had any say in all this.
http://www.dutchhillwind.com
Read the economic impact report. It is beneficial to the fledging upstate economy, so I’m for it. All of the complaints advocated by wind farm opponents are aesthetic in nature. Concerns about bird migration is refuted by placing the turbines farther apart than in nothern california, where it was documented. Ice throw is literally one in a million if a person is within 1000 feet of the turbine all the time, and since icing only occurs 3% of the time you can do the math. The noise isn’t that irritable, you tube “wind turbine” and listen for yourself, and as for shadow flicker, that’s what blinds are for.
Perhaps these people would prefer a coal power plant, or a nuclear power plant. They are not only ugly and harmful to the environment, but they actually cost money to generate power, unlike wind turbines. Time to buck up people, wind power is a viable resource and we should use it.
Agreed.
Is it true that Wind Farms take little to no upkeep?
What I want to see is a municipal wind farm plan. Towns could pony up the money for erecting the windmills, but they’d be in control, and pass all the savings back to the citizens in terms of lower energy costs due to less overhead.
Most of WNY electric is supplied by corporations, but there’s good precedent for municipal electric: Fairport Electric, which has supplied “Public Power” to it’s customers, at lower rates than the for-profit utilities (RG&E), since 1901.