What I have worked for my entire life is suddenly devalued by 50% to the benefit of a handful of neighboring citizens

4/8/13

The Honorable Jeffrey C. Cohen, Acting Secretary

NEW YORK STATE PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION

Three Empire State Plaza

Albany, NY 12223-1350

 Dear Secretary Cohen:

I am writing to you in reaction to the Preliminary Scoping Statement filed

by BP Wind Energy relating to its proposed 124 turbine wind farm in Cape

Vincent, NY. I am a resident of Cape Vincent, and I am strongly opposed to

this development for several reasons:

1) Although my physical property itself is not being taken by what amounts

to the imposition of Eminent Domain, its prior market value is being taken.

This amounts to an "illegal taking" under the law;

2) I realize that there have been many emotional and visceral reactions to this proposal -but this one is black and white and undeniable. I urge you to simply order an impartial comparative study of real estate sales in the Village of Cape Vincent and the Town of Cape Vincent prior to and then since 2008. Devaluations of50% of prior relative market values are not uncommon. While properties in surrounding communities have recovered

from the "Great Recession" our properties have not because of the

wind mill issue. BP Wind Energy can provide all the academic studies about

real estate devaluation they want. All real estate markets are local -and the

values in this one are ruined for all but the lands upon which turbines may

be placed;

3) The argument has been made by those who favor this development that

they have the Constitutional RIGHT to do what they wish on/with their property, provided it is legal. No argument there. But it becomes a much

more complicated legal question when the exercising of those rights

actually abrogates the rights of so many others. What does this do to my

right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" when what I have

worked for my entire life is suddenly devalued by 50% to the benefit of a

handful of neighboring citizens? I will need to know who is responsible for my just compensation;

4) BP Wind Energy admits in its scoping statement that the realistic outside useful life of this project is 20 years at most. We will then be faced with 124 useless, rusting hulks hovering over our properties. Then what? Whose responsibility is it to return the landscape to the way it was prior to this invasion?

Mr. Cohen, Cape Vincent has only ever had its location on the St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario to host its tourist economy. That has been true for decade upon decade. And that's all it will have for the coming decades. To put that -and the majority of its citizens' economic futures -at risk for perhaps 20 years of inefficient, heavily subsidized energy production hardly seems I like a prudent move.

I am in total opposition to this planned project for these and many more reasons. Wind power has its place. Cape Vincent is not one of them.