Court Cases

Disgruntled citizens and state utility regulators urged the U.S. Department of Energy on Wednesday to halt a plan to make it easier for companies to build long-distance power lines through communities that don't want them.

Their ire, vented at a public hearing in Manhattan, was aimed the Energy Department's announcement that it intended to designate two large sections of the Northeast and Southwest as "National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors."

Bath, N.Y. -- Judge Marianne Furfure heard arguments on May 8th brought by Cohocton Wind Watch, an anti-windmill group that says the Town of Cohocton did not comply with the State Environmental Quality Review Act when it changed its zoning regulations to make way for a project propsed by developer UPC Wind.

UPC Wind wants to build fifty 500-foot wind turbines in the hillsides scattered in and around Cohocton. They will lease farmland from local farmers and then sell that power to local energy distributors.

With a growing number of wind power stations in Germany, a new kind of legal case is rearing its ugly head. The crime: stealing wind.

It's an offense not mentioned in the bible or the statute books. But in a broader sense it is about theft, even when the booty itself is invisible. But it is still a major problem for the German legal system, including a court in Leipzig that is currently hearing a case involving a dispute between the operators of two wind turbine facilities. Who owns the wind?

BATH – A legal action aimed at stopping a Town of Cohocton wind energy project will be heard Tuesday May 8 in state Supreme Court in Steuben County.

Judge Marianne Furfure is scheduled to hear arguments brought by Cohocton Wind Watch. The anti-windmill group contends that the Town of Cohocton did not comply with the State Environmental Quality Review Act when it modified its zoning law to allow a project proposed by developer UPC Wind.

A group of landowners in the Town of Centerville filed suit Friday alleging the town board worked hand-in-hand with Noble Environmental Power, LLC, to craft a local law that accommodates Noble’s proposed Centerville Windpark, but without looking at the environmental impacts. The project would add at least 60 wind turbines, each about fifty stories high, to Noble’s Bliss Windpark in the Town of Eagle. Sixty-seven wind turbines have already been approved in Eagle. A comparable wind farm is planned by Noble in the Town of Farmersville in Cattaraugus County.

For people who call the town of Ellenburg home, these green pastures are sacred ground. Barbara Kramer, the Vice President of Neighbors of the North Country, said, “It is my utopia. Do you know what that means? Paradise. And this is paradise. And it is going to be devastated forever. ”

Neighbors of the North Country is a group opposed to Marble River Wind Farm, a project to build 400 foot tall wind turbines throughout Clinton County. But the project manager, Charlie Turlinkski said the 109 turbines built in the towns of Ellenburg and Clinton alone will create enough power for 60,000 homes.

John F. “Jack” Sullivan
Town Councilor
Malone, NY

July 22, 2006

To whom it may concern:

To some, my vote against wind power in Malone was a vote against progress; however, be assured that this decision was based on hundreds of hours of study and research, as well as numerous mathematical calculations backed by years of business experience and a graduate degree in physics. This vote was against the degradation of local property values, destruction of some wonderful viewsheds, lowering the quality of life of some local residents, and the accruing of millions of dollars of NY taxpayer dollars by a few wind developers.

COHOCTON - The Town of Cohocton is involved in a tug-of-war on the issue of wind farm development - with the most recent disagreement now in state Supreme Court.

The lawsuit - started in May - was initiated by James Hall, a Cohocton Wind Watch member, against the town board for issues involving Wind Mill Local Law No. 1. The law includes regulations for proposed wind farm development by UPC Wind Partner LLC.

Email your elected representatives in the NYS Senat and Assembly -- let them know how we feel about NYSERDA's authority to push or prevent projects using the almighty dollar.

Find your Assemblyperson: http://www.assembly.state.ny.us/mem/ and enter your zip code.

Find your Senator: http://www.senate.state.ny.us/sdl.html and enter your zip code.

Or send snail mail if you prefer...or do both ...spread the word....this can put an end to our fight....