Tuesday, November 22, 2011

LEASE ~ BREAKERS


“If they had both sides of the story, they may not have signed the contracts.”
It’s nice to try to use alternative energy, but we are right on the Mississippi Flyway,” Edwards said.



Several local landowners want out of wind contract The Republican Eagle Red Wing, Minnesota

Minnesota~ A handful of participating landowners who agreed to be part of a 78-megawatt wind farm are now anxious to get out of their contracts and have sent what they call a letter of termination to AWA Goodhue.

AWA Goodhue officials have declined comment.

In addition to a laundry list of other reasons, the landowners — who asked not to be identified — said realizations about possible effects on the area’s wildlife caused them to want out of the project.
“Those landowners a lot of times are making decisions based on what the wind folks are saying,” said Jaime Edwards of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

“If they had both sides of the story, they may not have signed the contracts.”
It’s nice to try to use alternative energy, but we are right on the Mississippi Flyway,” Edwards said.

“You really have to look hard at whether something like this should be placed on a flyway.”
Edwards also said that although the project has fewer than 50 turbines planned, once one moves in she expects more are likely to follow.

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It will be interesting to follow this case and see what happens.

I have often thought that the wind companies are taking advantage of the leaseholders in Cape Vincent .

I have been told by a reliable source that the developers did not inform lease holders of the negative aspects of wind development.

Additionally, I have been told that they were encouraged to be secretive during the signing process preventing them from engaging in collective bargaining .

It is also my opinion that the developers are not paying the leaseholders enough


Additionally, my source said that they were encouraged to sign a lease without the expertise of an attorney.


I think signing a wind lease probably seemed like a good idea at the time to many but I am sure that some people may have regrets.

The question is what can a leaseholder do if they want out?


Source Pierce County Herald link here to read the rest of the story

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Never signed one, never will. The wind people can kiss my a$$. I didn't need an attorney to tell me it was a bad idea.No one gets rewarded for doing the right thing in this situation. In five years when the money runs out and political expediency requires the end of wind energy as a subsidized industry there will be a Republican President to take the credit for shutting it down. Fulfilling the main prediction I made on my own that oil and gas will do whatever it takes to discredit Green Energy. Which made BP involvement so easily predictable. BP GO HOME. ACCIONA,too.

Anonymous said...

Should the town compensate wind lease holders if they lose or opt out of their opportunity for financial security?

Kathryn Muschell said...

People are responsible for the choices they make.
It is not the responsibility of the community to finance other people’s bad choices in life.

Anonymous said...

I want my money! I want my money, dammit!

Anonymous said...

I didn’t sign a lease I want money for not making a bad choice

Anonymous said...

If anyone is due compensation it should be those who donated cash to fight the corrupt town officials in court. These were the people who defended the public's interest, not the wind lease town officials.

Anonymous said...

People have to be pretty stupid to sign a big contract without the aid and advice of an attorney.

Anonymous said...

There have been sacrifices made that money cannot buy valuable years have been lost. Years that could have been spent with family. Lives that have been disrupted because others want few dollars more. I worked hard all my life only to find that I had to work to protect my family from corporate greed. The cliché money isn’t everything is true you cannot buy back time lost and you cannot buy health.

Anonymous said...

No, the developer did not inform those who signed leases of all of the negative effects.
I mentioned to a leaseholder that I was concerned about the noise. "They make noise?" she said, "I didn't know they made noise, I am already suffering from insomnia."

Anonymous said...

K. Exactly. Even though I never signed a lease, all I was protecting was my own interest. The town really hasn't shown any concern for anything else. My sense of self preservation is my own reward. Those who were so stupid to sign leases for some phony promise of a pot of gold deserve what they get. They certainly don't deserve to be "bailed out". These leases have some really ugly conditions attached. You're right that anyone who either signed without understanding what they were signing are fools. Try to find a lawyer who will interpret it all for you and give you the right advice. Consider the Gebo type on that question. If he represents the finest the town could find and gets paid from a legal slush fund from a corporation it's obvious that people are on their own in making the right decisions. They even tried to make it worse by signing a petition to prevent others from making the right decisions. They made that bed themselves, let them sleep in it. I suppose mass default would be the intelligent thing to do. Tie up these corporate assholes in litigation. See how fast the government bails them oput.

Anonymous said...

the VFW should get a class action going against the developers

Stay Focused said...

"the VFW should get a class action going against the developers."

But the poor leaseholders have "Stockholm Syndrome" -- they love their captors.

They would be more inclined to file a lawsuit against John Byrne. The wind developers told them that John Byrne has a horns and a pointed tail. He's the problem!