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Iberdrola’s Horse Creek Wind Farm is still in play. Recent exam of public property records in the Jefferson County Clerk’s Office showed leaseholders in Clayton renewed contracts with Iberdrola in 2013. Assume others in Orleans, Brownville and Lyme renewed as well for another 5-year term.
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Iberdrola has recently shown an interest in the efforts to kill (SASS). As explained in an earlier post:
“Why is Iberdrola interested in the effort to kill SASS?”
“Why is Iberdrola interested in the effort to kill SASS?”
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Industrial wind developers were forced to the renewable energy backburner with intermittent support of the Production Tax Credit (PTC). Nevertheless, renewal efforts for the Galloo project and the smoldering ashes of Horse Creek suggest Big Wind is still sniffing around in the wings and they cannot be too pleased with SASS’s
anti-industrial wind stance. No surprise if Big Wind wants SASS dead and gone - Lookout Cape and Clayton?
5 comments:
You think Iberdrola can still find our area on the map? You had better assume so.
With the possibility that Iberdrola still has interests around the Clayton area, in my opinion makes Cape Vincent a very exposed sitting duck.
You gotta bet that Iberdrola has probably sized up Cape Vincent since we are a lot better wind resource being closer to the lake.
Iberdrola doesn't need a map...they can simply sniff out stupidity when $$$$ are dangled before certain people's face in the form of wind leases. It's like trolling for fish.
The other company to keep a keen eye on is Nextera, which is another huge wind developer related to Florida Light and Power.
When they developed in AZ they didn't mess around. About 2 years and slam bam we had a 60 turbine wind farm.
Of course the stupidity of our county officials helped their cause dramatically.
Cape Vincent needs to toughen up and get very defensive. Accept the SASS designation with Clayton ASAP and revisit the CV wind zoning and revise it to prohibit wind development.
Whether we accept SASS of not, the report clearly indicated the right direction by saying these tall structures cannot be mitigated. If their is no mitigation the solution is to prohibit.
Traditional zoning as used along the river with wind development is completely useless to try to mitigate, what cannot be mitigated, especially when the impacts spread way beyond any towns zoning jurusdiction.
And as I and a few others have repeatedly recommended is that Clayton and CV should get involved with the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund lawyers and take a hard look at their approach to battle against the repeated assaults from wind developers and other potential invasive industrial threats, and State intervention against our home rules rights. No one has looked at this creative approach.
It needs to be seriously looked at.
If people think that local zoning and Art 10. are going to protect us they need to think again before it is too late.
CELDF.org
This from the Carleton Island section of the SASS report shows why wind developers will fight to kill SASS:
"Consequently, massive industrial and infrastructure projects should not be built within the SASS district or within its surrounding viewshed. There are presently no techniques to mitigate the visual impacts of these structures because they are so tall, massive and frequently in motion."
7:39 ... Exactly!!!
"There are presently no techniques to mitigate the visual impacts of these structures..."
However, the 1000 Islands towns along the St Lawrence on NY side, and many other communities have done exactly that, and charged right ahead and attempted the futility of trying to "mitigate" industrial wind using zoning laws and setbacks even though a quick look at Wolfe Is. will graphically show you how this approach fails miserably.
When we talk about mitigating these huge structures it would take setbacks in the 10's of miles or much more. Fact is most communities simply aren't big enough to apply even the mitigation setbacks that might work with significant distances. That is one reason a regional approach is relevant.
It is one reason the SASS IS RELEVENT!!
Industrial wind energy has simply turned traditional zoning on its head!
What makes this zoning approach even more futile is that NYS can simply override a local wind law with Art. 10.
So the completely out of context paradigm zoning approach used so far is to try to mitigate with setbacks what obviously can't be mitigated, and no town has the appropriate land area to achieve, and use zoning laws that can simply be pre-empted anyhow, Zoning laws which in the end are a tacit invitations to wind developers to start wind development conversations.
Why give them that opening?
It is time for a different approach and Henderson prohibiting industrial wind is the right approach. And that can be backed by other political moves as well.
The prohibition approach puts the right argument on the table, both politically and for protection of significant regional scenic resources, instead of getting into a losing pissing match with a wind developer and the state over setbacks that in fact don't even work anyhow.
And what the anti SASS anti govt people really fail to comprehend
is if you want to oppose govt in your lives, then stand up politically as a political region and take on NYS backed wind energy and Art. 10 head on instead of playing the wind zoning game that the state can just preempt anyhow.
You anti SASS people aren't even making sense in your own anti govt.arguments and need to get your head screwed on straight.
The way to fight govt., if that is what you want, isn't to withdraw yourselves in pissing matches behind little community borders, but make yourself a real geographic political force.
That is what the wind developers and people like Cuomo fear and understand.
Amazingly folks who were staunchly anti-wind in places like Hammond have now turned to an outside lobbyist and puppeteer to damage SASS. These folks originally supported SASS until (almost to the day) when IBERrats pulled the wind leases. Within weeks they anti-idiots began their big government rants and used SASS as their foil with their campaign of misinformation and fear mongering. Now the dopes have reopened the door and I suppose think they're safe because the pied piper will set them free when BIG BAD WIND comes knocking.
Ha, when the leases are signed again we'll see who steps forward. These few "free thinkers" and their appointed clowns will be in for a surprise, What's really comic is that the anti-brain trust pretty much remained in the back ground and turned their lap dogs loose with the script! Unfortunately they may have opened their community to be torn apart again by the thing they feared the most such a short time ago. Not to worry I guess their "coalition" will be torn apart when half sign leases and the other have start whining for help.
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