Town of Cape Vincent expresses concerns over BP's Wind lease documents

February 12, 2013

Honorable Jeffrey C. Cohen
Acting Secretary, NYS Board of Electric Power Generation Siting and Environment
3 Empire State Plaza
Albany, NY 12223-1350
Re: Case12-F-0410 Cape Vincent Wind Power


Dear Acting Secretary Cohen:

Once again we are writing with concerns regarding BP's Public Involvement Plan.
In their revised Public Involvement Plan (PIP) for the Cape Vincent Wind Power project, BP
indicated the purpose of their PIP was to “inform, engage and solicit additional input from
statutory parties, the local community, general public and other stakeholders.” Our concern in
this letter is solicitation of input, specifically public comments.

BP goes on in their PIP to outline how they will collate and organize the input from stakeholders
and how they will make this information available to the public on their website:

“Cape Vincent Wind Power will prepare a monthly spreadsheet-style tracking report
identifying PIP activities conducted by CVWP for the preceding time period, providing
summaries of feedback received in such activities and summaries describing any actions
taken by CVWP in response to given feedback.” “The reports will be posted on CVWP’s
website and filed with the Secretary for posting in the case file.”

As of February 10, 2013, there is no spreadsheet, no summary of public comment and no
response to those comments by BP on their website. However, on the Public Service
Commission's website there were 222 “Public Comments” posted as of that same date. The large
majority of those comments are critical of BP's proposal, although some are generally supportive
of industrial wind development and specifically supportive of BP's Cape Vincent Wind Farm
project.

The Town of Cape Vincent is uncertain how these endorsements and support of BP's project will
be used and how these comments might influence the Siting Board's eventual decision. Our
concern lies with the relationship between BP and a number of those people posting comments
who support the Cape Vincent Wind Farm project.

From our examination of the comments, many of the pro-project comments appear to be made by
individuals with lease agreements with BP. These individuals not only received money from BP,
but their financial agreements have the following cooperation clauses stipulated in the
agreements:

BP Lease Agreement “Owner (lessee) shall assist and fully cooperate with Grantee (BP),
at no out-of-pocket expense to Owner, in complying with or obtaining land use permits
and approvals, tax-incentives, or tax-abatement program approvals, building permits,
environmental impact reviews, or any other permits or approvals required for the
financing, construction, installation, relocation, replacement, maintenance, operation or
removal of Windpower Facilities in the Project (whether located on the Property, on
adjacent propety, or elsewhere), including execution of applications for such permits or
approvals if required.”

BP Good Neighbor Agreement: “Owner agrees to cooperate fully and promptly with
Grantee (BP) and its successors and assigns, at Grantee's sole cost, and to join in all
applications for permits, licenses and governmental approvals or requests for other
instruments which Grantee may deem necessary for purposes of the intended use or
development of the Wind Farm.”

None of the other stakeholders or interested members of the general public whose comments we
have examined on the PSC's website have similar contractual constraints. These arrangements
clearly influence the public dialog. How can benefit or harm to the community be properly
evaluated on the basis of the comments of those who stand to directly gain financially from
project approval? We believe payments to leaseholders and BP's contract language requiring
cooperation should at the very least separate and identify these project supporters from the
remaining general public.

Specifically, we would recommend that BP make available to the Siting Board and its staff and
the public a list of their leaseholders and individuals with good neighbor agreements, so that we
can all better understand the special influence that BP has on those voices that support their
efforts.

Please understand the Town is not suggesting BP's paid supporters should not be heard in the
Article 10 process. They should, of course, be heard. However, to better gauge the relative
public support for the Cape Vincent project, it is incumbent on the Siting Board and staff to
know what proportion of BP's project support is linked to their financial agreements.

Respectfully yours,

Urban Hirschey – Town Supervisor

Brooks Bradgon – Deputy Supervisor

John Byrne – Town Council

Clifford Schneider – Town Council

Michelle Oswald – Town Council

Richard Macsherry – Planning Board Chairman

Robert S. Brown – Planning Board

Cyril Cullen – Planning Board

Paul Docteur – Planning Board

Dennis Faulknham – ZBA Chairman

Ed Hludzenski – Zoning Board