Larger commercial wind turbines cost in the range of 1 to 2.5 million USD per megawatt of capacity. Most of the turbines being installed nowadays are of 2MW capacity and cost anywhere between 3-4 million USD.
BP has recently released to the media that with the acquisition of the neighboring St. Lawrence wind project in February, the Cape Vincent project now can reach upwards of about 285 MW in size .
Using 2.5 million as a figure representing the per turbine cost for the total number of turbines (193 give or take) proposed for Cape Vincent. This would add up to around $ 482.5 million dollars to construct these two projects. Sixty five percent of this $482.5 million will be paid by you through your tax dollars in the form of subsidies , NYSERDA , and the PTC (Production Tax Credits)( if it is renewed) , rapid depreciation schedules, and PILOTs,
This means that British Petroleum will only be paying $ 168,870,000 for these projects the taxpayers will pay the balance of $ 313,675,000.( all of these figures are derived from estimated numbers)
If a pilot is negotiated for these the projects, the developers will only be paying a fraction of what they should be paying.
The wind developer gets a reduction in the taxes that they are required to pay. The AVERAGE decrease in property values for homeowners in a community that hosts turbines is 30%.
When the property assessments are accordingly reduced this means a reduction in tax revenue for the community. The result of this will be an increase in tax rates to cover this loss in tax revenue.
These developments will mean a decrease in the quality of life for our community due to
1)High-powered transmission lines that are required to deliver the power produced by the turbines.
2)Noise pollution.
3)Bird deaths & Bat deaths.
4)Visual pollution.
5)Shadow flicker effect.
6)Loss of community.
7)Property devaluation.
8)Higher taxes.
9)Disruption of radio and TV reception .
10)Limited access to land for hunting and recreational purposes.
11)Hydro meteorological conditions caused by rotor turbulence can affect growth of crops within the wind farm.
What is the benefit to the 96% of the residents in Cape Vincent that are not hosting turbines on their land?
Even the lease holders will be experiencing all of these ill effects .
4 comments:
The total current assessed value of the Town of Cape Vincent (including tax exempt properties) is 301 million dollars.)
Even If the turbines taking up the entire town caused a more conservative 20% loss, that would mean Cape Vincent property owners would stand to lose 60 million dollars in assets so that 3.9% can have a stream of income they refuse to divulge to the rest of us.
What British Petroleum is offering to pay the town over the twenty year term amounts to about 8% of what we loose. And, our loss is accumulative.
We give them a dollar, they give us back eight pennies!
What the school gets from British Petroleum will be eventually negated by loss of and redistribution of state aid. There is no movement to change the present state formula to reward communities that sacrifice their communities worth to industrial wind so downstate can brag about expensive designer electricity.
Keep in mind that they call it state aid and not "state gravy". This is not a bonus to the school. It is a redistribution of who pays. It helps the whole state not us specifically.
Also keep in mind that our losses of home and land value are passed on to the County and will multiply with the possible edition of other wind developments in Jefferson.
And British Petroleum has no intention of paying sales tax and county filing fees.
What British Petroleum offers will hardly repair the destruction done to our roads during construction.
This whole proposal is nothing more than a sweet welfare deal for leaseholders and British Petroleum, but a raw deal for innocent Cape Vincent home owners who never asked for the project in the first place. And, there is the matter of trusting the leaseholders and British Petroleum.
When Democrat Paul Aubertine comes around campaigning, ask he how he feels about that.
Ask him to describe to you what he has read in the Town of Cape Vincent Wind turbine economic study.
Ask him to defend our losses compared to the small gain of his family and friends.
You left out wind turbine sickness. It's well documented.
7:33 ~ You are right!
Thank you for your work, you've motivated me
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