NYPA and the Despicable Oswego 11/13/09 Offshore Wind Project Presentation

Shown here are the Great Lakes Offshore Wind Project power point slides presented at the 11/13/09 meeting in Oswego, NY city hall given by the New York Power Authority. The slides are in order with the slide#1 one at the bottom of this group and the last one at the top. These slides are what the NYPA has been hiding from the general public!! Unless you were at the Oswego 11/13/09 presentation - seeing the slides here is the first opportunity the average person will have had to view early details of this offshore wind debacle - the images are NOT on the NYPA web site. Matter of fact - there is no mention whatever of the Oswego 11/13/09 meeting anywhere on the NYPA web site. Notice how beautiful the lake scene is in the (title) slide #1 of the NYPA presentation (bottom slide) - this scene is what they propose to change for the rest of our lifetime. They are planning to place hundreds (maybe thousands) of the largest wind turbines money can buy - into this scene beginning 2.3 miles from shore & in water depths less than 150 feet deep - creating an industrial offshore wind facility in Lakes Ontario and Erie. Lake Erie and Mexico Bay in eastern Lake Ontario are likely to suffer the worst due to shallower water conditions. NYPA's effort is to create electrical power for metropolitan NYC and Long Island because the folks downstate couldn't stand having this nightmare offshore facility in their neighborhoods. But don't blame just NYPA CEO and President Richie Kessel - he's just a mouthpiece for the real villain - Governor Paterson. Paterson is the mastermind behind this offshore debacle and Kessel is pushing it for him. New York's Great Lakes fresh water and land under the water is owned by the people of New York State and we shouldn't let Paterson and Kessel alter or destroy this natural resource. Few states in the USA are fortunate enough to have this fresh water resource in their backyard. For Kessel and Paterson - New York's north coast is simply an industrial repository to locate massive, ugly, noisy, property depreciating machines that will work less than 30% of the time producing volatile, intermittent, expensive electric to be shipped downstate where the need is greatest while the New York's north coast gets raped. It's no different than shipping downstate's garbage upstate or industrial power lines leading downstate. Upstate is a dumping ground for land uses NYC and Long Island refuse to tolerate. The wind profiteers will be foreigners while the abused US taxpayers foot the bill for 70% of the offshore wind facility! Lake shore municipalities that are most affected will have little or nothing to say about stopping the project.

NYS just witnessed its second major collapse of a terrestrial industrial grade wind turbine (in Fenner, Madison County on 12/27/09) - the first being at Altona, Clinton County, on March 6, 2009. The NYPA proposed offshore wind farms will have much larger turbines than the ones that have collapsed - in addition to the fact that they will be mounted on monopoles 150 feet tall "attached" to the lake floor. And no USA company has ANY experience building an offshore wind facility. NO offshore turbine has been located anywhere in the world in freshwater! Furthermore - USA made wind turbines don't have a good track record on land much less in water. Both collapsed turbines were built by G.E. and the Clipper turbines erected at the Steel Winds project in Lackawana, NY and others at Cohocton, NY have been plagued by major gearbox and fractured blade problems. How much hope would you have of success in an offshore turbine lasting in either Lake Ontario or Lake Erie? But who cares? US taxpayers will foot 70%+ of the bill to erect the wind facility that will operate maybe 30% of the time. And when we are in the dog days of summer when the temperature is near 100 degrees and there's no wind and the turbines are sitting there idle and brownouts are on the verge of happening - think about the $1.5B investment squandered on this folly! NYPA's Richie Kessel claims he's looking to build a 500Mw offshore wind facility in the lakes and that NYPA will buy ALL the power the facility produces through a power purchase agreement (PPA). Compare that with the existing Robert E. Ginna 498Mw nuclear power plant in Wayne County, NY now producing safe, dependable, reasonably priced electric 100% of the time as it has for the past 40 years - on less than 500 acres of land. The Ginna plant just sold recently to Constellation Energy for about $420M.

[Niagara County lawmakers earlier this year filed a lawsuit against the New York Power Authority that seeks to rescind the illegal transfer (sweep) of more than $544 million in surplus NYPA funds to the State of New York General Fund. No doubt both NYPA’s Kessel and Gov. Paterson knew the details of this illegal transaction and approved it. Keeping this $544M illegal sweep in mind – if NYPA had taken $420M and purchased the Robert E. Ginna nuclear power plant (Wayne County, NY) to become part of NYPAs operation to produce electricity – the output of Ginna would equal the output of the proposed offshore wind fiasco and $1.5B wouldn’t be needed to build Kessel’s offshore wind facility that would work only 30% of the time producing low quality, intermittent, volatile, expensive electricity. And the life of the offshore wind facility is only 25-30 years while Ginna is licensed until at least 2029 and has been operating since 1966 producing electric power nearly 100% of the time at a fair rate. What is NYPA thinking? What gives a better bang for the buck – wind or nuclear?]

Could you be naive enough to believe that only one wind farm would be built in the Great Lakes in NYS waters? That the whole process would stop there? Is that what Kessel's drawings show? Kessel and his downstate minions have no compassion for the Great Lakes - this is a money issue not an environmental or electrical power issue - Kessel and his political friends don't live upstate or play here or have to look at the Great Lakes. Former Gov. Spitzer has already kicked Kessel's ass and ideas for an offshore Long Island wind facility out of the picture. Kessel has already tried and failed to sell Long Island on an offshore wind plant at over $1B. You see - Kessel was fired by former Gov. Spitzer as head of the Long Island Power Authority for his mismanagement in his home area. Now, Gov. Paterson, the most unpopular governor in New York's history, a novice we didn't even elect, has resurrected Kessel - since they both wish to force their "green" idealogy on unsuspecting upstaters via the back door. Kessel failed to sell his dog & pony show on his home turf on Long Island but he's persistent and trying again except the victims this time are upstate New Yorkers - which should be more acceptable to downstaters. But the task of erecting the offshore wind facility won't be easy. Think about this for starters - there isn't a vessel right now in America that's capable of installing an offshore wind turbine anywhere in the Great Lakes. A vessel would need to be designed and built to do this job as any from Europe would not fit through the St. Lawrence Seaway!

Please have a look at these power point slides from the Oswego presentation beginning with the bottom slide #1 - most of the text and illustrations are self explanatory. Please share this information with anyone you think may be appalled by what Paterson and Kessel have in store for upstate New Yorkers. This project must be stopped! This project is illegal! Pressure must be brought upon municipalities and counties bordering the lakes to take a position strongly opposing any offshore wind project. Don't think for a moment that only the lake shore property owners and businessmen will be the victims of this development - the ripple effect from an offshore wind project will be widespread - particularly when assessments and property taxes are updated.

See the many other articles on this site referring to the NYPA offshore wind turbine debacle. Additional offshore project details on the NYPA Request For Proposal (RFP) can be seen on the NYPA web site.

Comments on these Oswego presentation slides. Slide #1 is the NYPA title slide, at the bottom of this group, with a beautiful view of a lake scene with NO wind turbines. Slide #2 shows Richie Kessel on April 22, 2009 announcing the horrible Great Lakes Offshore Wind Project plan on the shores of Lake Erie. Slide #3 begins the NYPA misrepresentations by hinting that wind energy is "clean" when its not. What's clean about a sideshow technology that kills birds and bats. What's clean about offshore wind turbines that can impact aquatic life? What's clean about disturbing the lake bed while trying to install monopoles to support turbines? What's clean about noise generated by these ugly machines that disturbs people's ability to sleep and causes other well documented health issues? NYPA touts the local development opportunities which will be limited and hardly worthy of mention. Kessel's idea of local development opportunities needs revision too. He makes a big deal trying to convince listeners that the need to make offshore turbines parts will bring thousands of well-paying jobs into NYS. This too is wishful thinking as the foreign wind developers will use well tested and proven turbines manufactured in Europe not the troublesome units like those installed in Buffalo's Steel Winds project or the Cohocton, NY disaster. NYPA also mentions the public's desire for renewable energy but let's go a couple of steps further - why not ask the public about sticking offshore wind farms in the Great Lakes and see what the response is? NYPA should stick to what they know about renewables - hydro and the fact that hydro is a renewable without the many drawbacks of wind. And Gov. Paterson's 45 x 15 proclamation - can this be taken seriously? Here's another downstater wishing to industrialize the Great Lakes - a guy we New Yorkers didn't even elect - someone who has become the most unpopular governor in the state's history - now drawing a line in the sand proclaiming what we'll be doing for energy in 2015. Nobody will remember in 2015 who Paterson was! He'll be kicked out of office in less than a year and downstater Kessel will soon follow. Slide #4 Why Offshore Wind - if there truly is a need for more energy then why opt for a means of producing it with the worst choice? If there is a growth in demand for energy why pick a means of producing it (via wind) where you pay more for it than other choices you could make? Why pick a means of producing it (via wind) when the means produces intermittent power, and volatile electricity? Why select a means of producing electric (via wind) when it may produce nothing when the need is the greatest? This slide also perpetuates the biggest lie wind supporters use to convince or sell people on the idea of wind energy - that wind energy will help reduce America's dependence on fossil fuels and middle-east oil. The NYPA should know better than to continually repeat this lie as Kessel did during the Oswego presentation. Less than 2% of all electricity produced in the USA is produced by fossil fuel generators. With that in mind - IF the middle eastern countries suddenly stopped selling oil to the USA - this action would have virtually NO IMPACT whatever on America's ability to generate electricity. The slide also says there's no water or waste generation but doesn't mention that wind turbines are BIG users of electricity and cannot operate without electricity. Without electric power to each turbine - they cannot run and are designed to shut down immediately to prevent self destruction. And the note about proven offshore technology in Europe - there's a world of difference between the few offshore wind farms built in Europe recently and what's planned for the Great Lakes. Start with the differences between freshwater and salt water, ice affects, earthquakes, and turbines sizes planned for the Great Lakes vs what's been built in Europe. Slide #9 shows a typical proposed offshore wind farm. Text that's too small to read identifies a 33KV/132KV offshore substation and another arrow identifies a transmission cable to shore. Offshore substations contain thousands of gallons of oil. Turbine nacelles also contain over 1,000 gallons of oil. Oil is also found within the electrical cable that runs between the turbines and to the shore. Lots of opportunity for spillage and contamination here! At the Oswego presentation they showed a short video that demonstrated how a cable was being buried under water using a jet plow. The video seabed is hardly what's to be expected in rocky Lake Ontario - the jet plow would never work but it sure looked neat in the video showing how easy it might be to bury a large cable in a sandy ocean bottom. Slide #11 Outreach and Education is another NYPA misrepresentation as the public has deliberately been kept from knowing what NYPA plans for the Great Lakes. The information in these slides is a great example of the lack of outreach. The only people invited to the few "public meetings" that have been held are elected officials and selected business leaders. There has been no "outreach" or open or inclusive process to date involving the general public. NYPA wants the turbine developers (foreigners maybe?) to be the ones who unload details on the general public and take the resulting flak and heat that's sure to happen. Slide #12 Permitting Agencies - notice that those shoreline municipalities affected the most - the ones who are the victims of this horrible project - won't have anything to say about their future and all the grief this project will dump upon them. The towns and counties are not among the permitting agencies as the land under water is NOT within their jurisdiction! This is what NYPA likes best about this project - taking the public and local officials right out of the picture and have virtually no voice to object. Instead you'll have the downstate gang like Kessel, Paterson, Schumer, Grannis, & Bloomberg running and supporting the show. On the other hand - there are many other agencies not listed that will need to approve this horrible plan. PILOT payments to the towns and schools - there won't be any in this scenario! But don't give up hope - this project is illegal and the NYPA knows the legal steps will be tested and this process will use up plenty of time and millions of taxpayer dollars before the whole plan is scuttled in the end. Slide #13 - NYS and Federal permitting considerations - the list is hardly complete and some of the most important considerations are missing. Slide #14 Environmental Considerations - it's always amazing how much thought is given to how a project is going to affect wildlife & the environment yet its horrible impact on humans is never considered an issue. What about property values, noise, light trespass, shuttering, viewshed loss, splitting communities, turning neighbor against neighbor, greed-driven conflicts of interest, etc.? NIMBYism - doesn't this mean Next It Might Be You? Slide #15 Site Screening - some of what this slide refers to is more visible with the map slides coming up. The wind resource note 7.5 m/s at 80 meters is referring to wind speed requirements meaning that the wind must blow at 7.5 meters per second at 80 meters above water level. The 80 meters is the approximate distance from the water to the rotor hub height. (A meter is approx. 39") Slide #17 shows Lake Erie waters offshore in NYS in mostly reds where the mean wind speed is 7.5 m/s or greater making this area good for wind farms. The blue area above the dotted line is Canadian water and the blue area to the left is off the Ohio coast. Slide #18 show the mean wind speed exclusions in dark blue off the NYS shore in Lake Erie. These areas would not be suitable for turbine locations and are close to the shore anyway. Slide #19 shows the Lake Erie Bathymetry (water depths) off NYS in four section depths. The area in deep blue toward the center of the lake is too deep for locating offshore turbines (over 150 feet deep) and would be excluded from turbine locations. Slide #20 shows the deepest area of the lake in deep blue - where turbines won't be located. Slide #21 shows other exclusions that might affect turbine locations such as shipping lanes. Turbines would not be located in known shipping lanes. One shipwreck location is also marked with a red triangle. Slide #22 shows the potential wind farm locations crosshatched blue in Lake Erie after the exclusions have been removed. The numbers indicate the possible megawatt capacity of that potential area. Slide #23 shows in reds - Lake Ontario's mean wind speed in NYS waters that is acceptable for wind turbines. Slide #24 shows mean wind speed exclusions for Lake Ontario in dark blue these are very close to the shoreline. Slide #25 shows Lake Ontario Bathymetry and you can see the water depth patterns of Lake Ontario are much different than Lake Erie making for less possible locations for offshore turbines. Slide #26 shows a dark blue area that is over 150 feet deep - too deep for turbine locations while the lighter blue areas are acceptable locations for turbines. Slide #27 shows other exclusions in Lake Ontario such as shipping lanes and several shipwreck locations. Slide #29 shows the tentative timelines that NYPA is supposedly working to on the offshore project - they've already missed badly the community outreach goal by a year. Slide #30 shows offshore mini-turbines in Denmark in saltwater. Slide #32 is of a Danish wind farm 8 to 12 miles offshore! That's hardly what's being proposed for Lakes Erie and Ontario but still unacceptable.

HULLABALOO IN HOUNSFIELD

(The following opinion was written by Bob Ashodian. Bob is a member of the Henderson Harbor (NY) Chamber of Commerce and head of the Chamber’s Economic Development Committee.(eastern Lake Ontario area - Jefferson County) Bob assisted in forming the Preservation of the Golden Crescent Committee (http://www.preservethegoldencrescent.com/) that hopes to prevent turbines from industrializing their area in Jefferson County, NY both on and off shore. The thought of placing turbines on Galloo Isand (in eastern Lake Ontario) is especially appalling and Bob’s group is fighting that development. Galloo Island is in Lake Ontario in the town of Hounsfield and unoccupied)

Some thoughts about the Hounsfield Hearing, Monday, December 21, 2009
Some Suggestions for Letter Writing

My purpose of putting these rough notes together is to document some thoughts that I can draw on for our column in the Jefferson County Journal as well as incorporate into letters.

I would also like to provide some “talking points” or thoughts others might want to draw on to put their own letters or news releases on paper. We need to keep up on the speaking out. The more people that communicate to those we must influence, the better off we will be.

As usual when attending these meetings I am struck by how many things really upset me after the fact. If you are like me, you may find it difficult think right on the spot, to formulate just the right thoughts, then stand and deliver the appropriate hard hitting counter argument. Monday morning was no different.

The scope of the hearing was narrowly defined – Planning Board action on a site plan on an island I would suspect no board member had ever visited; they are simply looking at lines on a chart, pictures in a book. I suspect it is beyond their authority to deny or approve the project unless there is some zoning law provision that prevents the implementation of the special use Galloo Island will be put. As a member of the Henderson Town Planning Board for more than five years, we have looked at many projects that we may or may not like, but we are bound to apply the zoning laws as they exist. I do not know what the underlying zoning classification is for Galloo Island, but suspect what ever it is, building industrial towers cannot be prohibited by the current zoning laws applicable to the island.

I thought they were quite generous in allowing the discussion of many issues that were not Planning Board topics and clearly beyond the scope of the Planning Board hearing rules outlined in their introduction. There were several issues that invited direct confrontation. But, we all behaved ourselves.

Many of the points made from the audience were quite telling. Those points are worth following up on in submitting additional written documents to the Hounsfield Planning Board (even if beyond the scope of what they can deal with) and the likes of the DEC, Barry Ormsby, the JCIDA or anybody else that we can make listen.

The following points stick in my mind and I feel are worth pounding the table about to who ever can open an e-mail or letter and has a stake in the game. The issues include:

1. Class warfare – the haves and the have-nots; the concept that the rich people are protecting their view of the lake; a view from their expensive homes that the rich some how do not deserve to have. Basis for counter argument – yes, some of us have very expensive homes, properties and businesses. Yes, we have more money and our properties are worth a lot of money. That valuation is based on the view shed we have and the quality of life we are willing to pay extraordinary dollars to have, as are so many others coming to this area. Our properties are assessed higher than any other properties in the county. We can afford it because we worked for it, and WE PAY THE TAXES based on the extraordinary value of our properties. So lower the value of the property, destroy our businesses and guess who will foot the tax shortfall that results. I pay more than $11,000 a year in property taxes. You want to pick up what I won’t pay if my property value declines 30%, or you want to make up the difference if the local campground, marina, or any other business fails because we wasted the primary resource that keeps the economy afloat. Lots of meat there for an article or a letter to the editor.

2. The only reason this project is being pursued is because of the federal, state and local subsidies – billions of dollars going to a hoax – the best government plan since subsidized ethanol and where we burned food to make inefficient fuel at a premium cost. The hoax was simple – we can grow our energy. Unintended consequences – corn is the basic ingredient to thousands of basic food products. The world cost of food went up and millions of people starved because the government elite totally overlooked the basic laws of economics. Some farmers and some related industries cleaned up – they got the money. Subsidized wind energy – sounds good – wastes billions on subsidies and the big money flows to foreign countries, the investors get rich while desperate communities sell out for pennies on the dollar and the energy produced is very expensive. You want a subsidy? You want a PILOT – how about a PILOT for the tax payers? Definition of a PILOT, what they don’t pay, we pay.

3. Who cares about efficiency – 20% is good enough, cost is no object, the government pays for it. Our tax dollars are being thrown down the toilet. No matter – its green, its green. I love it. Forget that I’m saving the planet by being green while I destroy forever, the very quality of life that so many people are willing to pay a premium to have. Let’s convert the entire water front to wind towers, the closer to shore the better, cheaper to build and maintain. I don’t live there, the rich people live there.

4. Who cares about my neighbors? This thing is 12 miles out in the lake. I can’t see it, too bad if you can. This means money to ME. I need the tax benefit, we are poor, we need jobs, they promised us jobs, I believe, so sell it off, sell it off, the sooner the better. Who cares? Never been out there, never will, so who cares about a few acres of land that might be worth ten times as much in the future. Who cares that it can never be replaced? I want the money, any kind of money, now, right now.

5. This is a Hounsfield project. There are no other considerations. Cape Vincent’s wind towers, not my problem. In the water turbines, not my problem. Who cares about 2000 towers out in the lake? We are working on our town, not yours.

Here’s a couple of other issues, not so much related to the Hounsfield hearing itself, but still considerations worth giving visibility:

1. The DEC is only one of many agencies supposedly looking out for us; to protect us and others from doing harm; to protect us all from the greed of others who might otherwise see only short term profit now for themselves, to the disadvantage of the rest of us. Now, are we facing the real risk that our own DEC will have identified the harm that will be done, simply be a bystander? This is the harm you will do; now you know, so the rest of the government promoters and the developer can have a clear conscience. Of course we will have taken mitigating action – we won’t blast when the fish are spawning. But, we can’t be sure of when, but we will try. Yeah, no doubt we will kill some birds and bats and turtles, cull (slaughter) some deer, but we will try to mitigate that. ANWR (Alaska National Wildlife Reserve) is a tiny blip in a vast wildness, seen and visited by virtually no one. Can’t industrialize any of that, but we can contemplate the complete industrialization of the north eastern end of Lake Ontario; home and vacation land to hundreds of thousands of people, an international destination. This is truly madness.

2. Following the meeting, Donald Metzger, Karl Williams, Mitch Franz and I heard a very interesting story. Don’s a St. Lawrence River pilot. A very interesting guy to talk with. He gets that marvelous opportunity to chat with ship captains from around the world. In the parking lot, he relates a conversation he had with a captain who was very familiar with wind towers in the North Atlantic. In the water towers. Towers placed there by the Europeans. The captain tells Don that he has talked to the fisherman in the area. They report that for some reason, fish avoid the area for several miles around the towers. The suspected reason – the blades set up a noise, a pulse, a sound, that bothers the fish, but a sound not heard by us humans. (Dogs can hear sounds we can’t.) So why bring up this point – 84 sets of turbine blades, their metal structures anchored into the ground with poured concrete, will create all manner of sounds. Think of each structure as a gigantic tuning fork placed on a foundation of virtually solid rock surrounded by water. Who from any agency has any idea what the impact of the tuning fork effect will be on the creatures that inhabit Galloo Island or what sort of frequency vibrations will broadcast itself like a gigantic sonar device into the fisheries of the Golden Crescent. How far away will the pulse and vibration of 84 turbines be heard by the creatures of the lake? Will some creatures simply move beyond the hearing range, or will they simply perish having been deprived of their habitat. Who knows? Does anybody really care? I say no one knows, but some may suspect, many might care if they knew what might happen. This is a topic that should be raised with the DEC and other environmental groups and the fishing interests.

These are just a few thoughts while I am feeling really cranked up. I will incorporate some of the above in future Jefferson County Journal pieces.
I would encourage others to pick up on any of the above thoughts for their own letters to the editor, especially to the WDT or as news releases directly from the Coalition, the Chamber or the Heart of Henderson and as letters to the political fools that are in charge of our future.

For those with engineering backgrounds, you should be able to expand on my non scientific analogies of the tuning fork effect of wind turbines anchored into the rock of Galloo Island.

Do what you can. We are at war.

Bob Ashodian

The New Civil War - Rural vs Urban

(This treatise was written by J.P. Michaud who is a Kansas research scientist, currently serving as an assistant professor of entomology researching new ways to protect agriculture from insect pests. He reviews manuscripts for scientific publications and sits on the editorial boards of two international journals. Although this opinion was written by the author with Kansas in mind – it surely can be applied to NYS. He is fighting wind projects in Kansas and is a thought provoking writer.)

There is a civil war arising from the land use conflicts inherent in alternative energy generation and it thrives on a certain disconnect between urban and rural elements of our society.

While rural communities possess the required land resources, large urban centers have the hunger for the power and the political influence needed to acquire it, along with little empathy for the pastoral quality of life that defines and motivates rural living.

Politicians of almost every stripe are currently stampeding over each other to masquerade as protectors of the environment by promoting and embracing “renewable energy.”

All demand that vast tracts of land be pressed into service in order to produce relatively slender yields of energy. In the rush to promote these alternative energy sources, federal and state governments have provided generous tax breaks and lucrative capital depreciation incentives to big business to encourage development.

In doing so, they have laid the foundation for a civil war that is currently ravaging dozens of rural communities nationwide.

Forget about grass-roots conservation and “bottom up” local energy reform. Developments must be large scale to qualify for any real government support.
And where to find large acreages of land that can be leased cheaply? The same place residential and commercial developers have looked in the past — farmland.

Farms have always been vulnerable to development because just about any other use will generate more income from the land than agriculture. Now it is renewable energy developers that need land, and lots of it.

Our politicians have loosed upon us a virtual army of scheming, profit-driven developers and allowed them to wrap themselves in the seemingly unimpeachable cloak of “green energy” while they aggressively exploit unsuspecting rural neighborhoods.

Local governments have neither the resources nor the expertise to make informed decisions when it comes to large-scale energy developments and cannot always be relied on to act in the best interests of their community.

They are easily coerced by developers and often end up supporting projects before they have any real grasp of their long-term implications.

Wind energy developments are typically preceded by years of covert scouting, signing of confidential leasing agreements, bribing of local politicians with payments in lieu of taxes, etc.

Developers will tout the economic benefits of their project to the community, invariably exaggerating the number of jobs they will create and the amount of money they will spend. They never talk costs — only benefits.

The impending socio-economic fallout from these conflicts is chilling to consider. Local newspaper headlines are telling: “County wind turbine debate pits neighbors, families against each other.”

People feel outraged and disenfranchised by the undemocratic nature of the development process.

We may be facing a new form of class warfare: true rural conservationists versus phony environmentalists, industrial wolves in sheep’s clothing, and the political posers that license and subsidize them.

Communities are left with broken friendships, mistrust of neighbors, political animosities, and a compromised future.

Such will be the legacy of the civil war over renewable energy, born out of leadership failures and politicians that turned a blind eye to the civil injustice created by their policies.

By J. P. Michaud

Endeavor News
20 December 2008

Fishermen Incensed Over Offshore NY Turbines

Here's what serious boaters & fishermen are saying since learning of the 11/13/09 NYPA Oswego, NY presentation:

Underwater powerlines would be strung all over restricting the use of anchors by small craft.
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I have received countless Emails the past few days regarding this "project" from representatives from Oswego County. They are all aware of this proposed windfarm, and the majority appears to be opposed to this going through. Jefferson County has already started the process to adopt a resolution which will be sent to the PSC should this project be given the go-ahead. It has been suggested that Oswego County do the same.
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Imagine the disruption to radar systems in the shipping lanes and all of us who use radar to navigate and watch weather with. They already show up on doppler radar over the ridges east of Buffalo and over near Lowville when you look for radar weather reports. They look like a real bad rain storm that never moves away.
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Do you think we will be allowed to fish anywhere near these turbines? No way! It will be just like the 9-Mile Point nuke plant was after 9/11 - restricted zones. What about the power transmission lines? The lines will have to be run underwater. Downrigger balls often track very close to the bottom of the lake where these lines will be run. Just in Mexico Bay alone, they are proposing 560 of these turbines. That is like taking the entire Lowville farm and putting it in the water where hundreds of thousands of boats troll during the fishing season. Think about the annual fishing derbies and tournaments on the lake and how they will be affected.
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If this project goes through, we may as well all sell our boats, because we will not be able to use them anymore where we use them now. You may tell us to just move to another location to fish, but when you are talking about 560 turbines in one area alone, where do you go? Another thought on these turbines. I have found out that the power generated by these turbines will NOT be used to power the area they inhabit. All power will be transferred downstate. I have an issue with that. If downstate needs more power and windfarms are the answer, there are plenty of places downstate to put windfarms.
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Those electrical fields will disrupt the E-W movement of salmon & trout around the lake. Additionally, people complain about their noise – noise is amplified & travels faster through water. How will that constant rumble transmitted through the tower affect aquatic life? (Fishermen generally try to be fairly quite when out there.) Lake Trout habitat will definitely be affected. We don’t need any new navigational hazards. The quantity they’re talking about will affect nearshore currents, especially in 100-150 FOW range.
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The purpose of this project is to make money for the guy that thought it up. It's not to be good to the people nor about us going green. It's an attempt to put big money in someone's pocket. The originator is not proposing this out of the goodness of his heart. He's trying to cash in on the environmental movement. If you want a windmill farm for NY City then put them on top of the buildings down there or off your own ocean beaches. Put them in your backyard, let the windmill farm affect the people that will benefit from it, which obviously won't be me.
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Others fear the offshore turbines will disturb fishing and spawning grounds and endanger birds that migrate at night.
"We have to be very sensitive to the environment of the Great Lakes, whether it's the fish or the birds or bats, or the water itself," is what NYPA President Richie Kessel said on 12/1/09 at the Niagara Power Project. Gee Richie – didn’t you leave out one other segment of the environment we should be sensitive to?

More Bad News from NY Power Authority

The NYPA has just released new information (as of 12/1/09) on their proposal to trash Lakes Ontario and Erie. The main news is that the NYPA Request For Proposals (RFP) document is now public and available for all to review at: www.nypa.gov/NYPAwindpower/rfp.html. They have included maps that are easily accessible for additional disgusting information about the scheme they propose to victimize upstate New Yorkers. The RFP will tell you, among other things, that the NYPA plan is to place offshore turbines in the lakes as close as 2 nautical miles (2.3 statue miles) from shore or islands – what a horrible thought! Please check out other articles in this Beware NY Wind blog for much more info on the NYPA proposal by people we didn’t even elect including the biggest offshore turbine supporter of all – Gov. Paterson, lowest rated NYS governor in our lifetime. NYPA President Richie Kessel was FIRED by Gov. Spitzer from his job as head of the Long Island Power Authority (both are Democrats) and now he’s been adopted by Gov. Paterson and directs his efforts at destruction of the Great Lakes since being booted out of the LIPA. You can also read the NYPA news release about the offshore RFP document at their web site: http://www.nypa.gov/