Wind Turbines (New York, Liberty, Boonville: houses, buy, tax)

[honeychrome]

Originally Posted by oktaren

.....im sorry but these tremendously conservative residents won't allow it.

You say that like conservative might be a bad thing!

[oktaren]

Originally Posted by honeychrome

You say that like conservative might be a bad thing!

Nope, not at all!

[keith talent]

Originally Posted by honeychrome

It's that 'cost more' part. ... Maybe you thought it was all about actually generating clean, renewable energy?

Yep, that does sound like it would be too much to ask, wouldn't it?

And as for conservatives, didn't they, way back in the mists of time, believe in conserving things? Values, resources, whatever? I forget exactly when it was they got their big-money kneepads.

[oktaren]

Originally Posted by keith talent

Yep, that does sound like it would be too much to ask, wouldn't it?

And as for conservatives, didn't they, way back in the mists of time, believe in conserving things? Values, resources, whatever? I forget exactly when it was they got their big-money kneepads.

Most conservatives in our area are against the wind mills very much. Although there are only a few all together who like the idea of them coming in.

[GoldenCrow]

Here's an interesting fact: most of the companies building these huge wind installations in New York and across the USA are foeign companies -- using our tax dollars.

We're actually encouraging foriegn ownership of our electrical production. How stupid are we to allow this to happen?

[honeychrome]

Few large corporations are really of any one particular country anymore- they're global/multinational. They shift elements of the company from country to country to take advantage of tax/labor/environmental/subsidy disparities between countries. The corporate loyalty is to profit and profit only- certainly not to a country, community, people or the environment.

[GoldenCrow]

Originally Posted by honeychrome

Few large corporations are really of any one particular country anymore- they're global/multinational. They shift elements of the company from country to country to take advantage of tax/labor/environmental/subsidy disparities between countries. The corporate loyalty is to profit and profit only- certainly not to a country, community, people or the environment.

So true, Honeychrome. These wind installations will be run by absentee owners who do nothing but take money & resources out of the community. The wind salemen also jabber on about jobs that will be created. What a joke! Maybe one low wage security job for every 50 turbines. Otherwise, these industrial installations create NO JOBS for local people.

[Glimmerglass]

Originally Posted by honeychrome

It's that 'cost more' part. Making a profit on the majority of industrial wind development in this country is not dependent on generating and selling electricity, it is dependent on subsidies and tax benefits/offsets (often transferable to another subsidiary of the parent company), so the developer wants to buy the cheapest possible turbines and put them up in the cheapest way in the cheapest place where there is enough 'potential' wind to calculate a subsidy that makes them money.

Thank you honeychrone for perhaps the most spot on summary of what the reality is behind the rush with wind development. It is not economical to produce wind energy in the US and while the cost for the equipment will continue to drop it is highly unlikely that it will ever be a competitive source of energy in the absense of tax credits and the like.

The twisting of this as being a NIMBY topic against those who oppose wind harvesting with economic facts and logic is offensive.

Why there isn't a better exploration into the use of naturally produced methane gas, for example, from cows is beyond me. While a lot of upstate NY's dairy business was curtailed by the dairy compact there are the surviving farms which could benefit from a tax credit (if necessary to jump start it) to economically develop this natural source of energy. I'd far rather see more hillsides dotted with cows over the hulking ugly blinking towers and the huge blades.

The developers of the proposed wind farms have done really nothing more then poison a lot of small towns who were economically struggling and pit neighbor against neighbor. Without question there will always be some who would for a price welcome a nuclear waste dump into their town - that doesn't mean those owning adjacent land should be without a voice in the matter.

The community of Jordanville looks like it might get help in preventing this blight from happening only by virtue of the towers being so high that it would be visible from Lake Otsego/Cooperstown which is both historically protected and luckily with a large poltical voice.

[keg92]

Hey Have you attended any of the turbine meetings in Westfield. I found the most opposition was from people in Westfield who benefit from a much lower electric rate than the rest of us get from National Grid because of a very old agreement with their private electrical supplier which actually makes electric heat the cheapest form of energy in their town. They were constantly expressing a concern that windmills would make their rate equal to what the rest in Western NY pay . I don't know how since they apparently have a contract with NG to provide them with a special rate. Not sure how I feel about windmills but whatever your opinions get well-educated. All opposition is not about environment but about entitlement.
Dairy Farms?? Cows?? Next -to- last operating dairy farm in this area shut down last Fall. Who can afford to have a family run dairy farm any more Not in this area Sorry much as we hear about methnae it is not feasible at this time. The same people who complain about views do not want cows, barns and manure in their backyards either.

[dwmumbulo]

Yeah-Why have windpower?-lets pay more than $4 /gallon for petroleum.