Updates

Bald eagles at record high

The Department of Environmental Conservation announced that this year’s bald eagle population has increased statewide and is at a record high. State wildlife staff and volunteer “nest-watchers” monitor the nesting-eagle population each year. When active nests are identified, aluminum flashing is placed on trees to prevent raccoons from climbing and eating the eggs or young eagles. Since 1975, when the Fledgling Endangered Species Program began, the DEC has worked to restore bald eagles in New York. More than 200 nesting eagles were released between 1976 and 1989. Two productive pairs of eagles were established in 1980 and the population began to grow: to four pairs by 1987, 16 by 1991, 35 by 1997, 64 by 2001, and 92 by 2005. This year, 110 nesting pairs were counted with a record 172 young produced during the breeding season. For more go to www.dec.state.ny.us and click on “2006 Bald Eagle Annual Report.”

Labels: Ecology, New York

Proposed wind farm canceled

SPRINGWATER — PPM Atlantic Renewable has dropped its plans to build 14 wind turbines in Springwater. PPM spokeswoman Jan Johnson said Tuesday that the company’s options on property in the town have expired. “We decided to focus our efforts on the development of wind projects in other parts of New York,” Johnson said. In early 2005, PPM — owned by a Scottish parent company — proposed building the 397-foot windmills along two miles of ridge east of Strutt Street. Informally called the Bishop wind farm, it would have been visible from parts of Canadice in Ontario County. The project raised objections in Springwater and prompted officials in Canadice to start working on wind-farm regulations in the event that an energy company started looking for turbine sites there. Canadice will hold a hearing on that law as early as February. Earlier this year, PPM Energy opened the Maple Ridge Wind Farm on the Tug Hill Plateau in Lewis County — 120 turbines, each 320 feet tall.

Labels: Process

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

Labels: Morality, Smile

The bleachers were filled at the old high school gym and applause erupted when the Cherry Valley town board Thursday, Dec. 14, voted, 2-1, in favor of a "gold standard" wind ordinance that may stop Reunion Power from building 24 turbines on East Hill. Supervisor Tom Garretson and Town Board member Jim Johnson voted in favor of the measure, while retiring board member Fabian Bressett III voted nay. This was also the last meeting for Bressett, who is retiring after 33 years on the town board. The board "selected" Mark Cornwell, who works in the SUNY Cobleskill fisheries and wildlife program. He and his wife, Christine, have opposed the windmill development. Cornwell will be confirmed in the job next month. While Bressett voted against the ordinance, he paved the way for the ordinance's adoption by making the motion to put the question into play.

Labels: Legal Issues, New York, Process

Looking over the recent actions of Cohocton’s elected officials makes one thing very clear: they haven’t deviated at all from their goal to facilitate the industrialization our Town’s hills with a massive wind turbine installation. No amount of appeal, remonstration, or criticism from citizens has altered their course in the slightest. Passing Windmill Law #2 (and trying to finesse SEQR in the process) is just the latest in a series of actions that cater to only one segment of our community. Are you starting to get fed up? If you’re not already involved, this might be the time to start. Please read our article in this week's Valley News and click on the links provided to review LL#2 and the Town's SEQR ploy. Keep in mind while you're reading them that our elected officers would like you to believe that they wrote these documents themselves. Then get in touch with us to share your thoughts and find out how you can help.

Labels: Cohocton

For many people the idea that our planet is becoming warmer because CO2 is building up in the atmosphere is an established fact. However, for others that idea still remains a controversial and unproven theory. Without taking sides in the argument, our article in this week's Valley News highlights a graph (above) presented by US Senator James Inhofe, Chairman of the Committee on Environment and Public Works. Two of his public presentations are available here: one on climate change and the other on media coverage of the controversy. Some may still scoff after reading his articles, but wouldn't it be interesting if, 5 years from now, our planet began to cool again in spite of ever-increasing CO2 in the atmosphere, most of it produced by industrial development in mainland China that is entirely beyond our control? It would be sad to find out that we had sold the beauty, peace, and tranquility of our everlasting hills for a bowl of porridge, and even sadder to be left by a bankrupt energy speculator with an obsolete clutter of broken-down turbines two decades from now. There really isn't any rush: we have time to see what will happen to climate and what new technology brings. Our hills will wait, and if truth is on the side of wind turbine development there will always be another developer, perhaps an even better one than UPC.

Labels: Global Warming

Despite rapid growth in this renewable energy resource, another recent report from ABS Energy Research highlights extensive new evidence from European operators showing that the benefits claimed for wind power are not always what they seem.

Labels: Disadvantages