October 13, 2007
Governor Eliot Spitzer
State Capitol
Albany, NY 12224
Dear Governor Spitzer,
Cohocton Wind Watch (CWW) seeks comprehensive New York State oversight of the Industrial Wind Industry. Our members do not oppose sensible and financially viable alternative energy projects. However, the pattern of questionable business practices demonstrated by numerous corporate wind developers has produced a record of consistent and substantial violations of local laws, NYS statutes, regulatory requirements and public health and safety mandates.
We understand your support for alternative energy projects and your delegation of review to Lieutenant Governor Paterson. But what is missing in the current rush to fast-track ill-conceived industrial wind development is accountability with well-established legal requirements. Your previous record, as NYS Attorney General of taking on fraudulent corporate businesses is well known. Yet, that same vigilance has been lacking in your current administration.
On 9/26/07 I hand delivered the enclosed letter to AG Andrew Cuomo. Then on 9/27/07 the second SCIDA letter was presented to each SCIDA Board member. Both documents indicate that significant and widespread Anti-trust violations have taken place. From our extensive research, we submit that RICO and other criminal conduct have occurred as well.
Consider the following:
Legal Issues
1. Sherman Antitrust Act: a Complaint alleging market allocation, price fixing, and bid rigging was filed with the Department Of Justice on April 25, 2007 by 94 citizens across the northeast. The market allocation is perfect and complete; no landowner or taxing authority has had the opportunity for competitive bids as the wind developers divided up the countryside long before any of the projects were made public. Hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue are being denied citizens of New York as a result of this illegal activity. In addition to the DOJ filing we now have two law firms researching class action civil lawsuits alleging antitrust and RICO felony violations.
We have been in discussion with the NYS Attorney General's office since our DOJ filing but they have taken no direct action to date. This is not a major concern for us as we believe that the civil actions will put enough of the developers in jail that the State can continue to watch from the sidelines, at least until the voters find out what has been taking place under the Spitzer/Cuomo watch.
2. False Claims Act: wind developers have consistently lied about the productivity of their projects in applications to state and federal authorities such as NYPA, NYSERDA, and FERC. As a result of this fraud they will receive millions of dollars in subsidies, grants, and tax credits. A series of lawsuits under the federal False Claims Act will put an end to these illegal practices.
3. Bribery: we have documentation and witnesses to the bribery of public officials by the wind energy developers. The monetary value of these bribes ranges from a few thousand dollars to several hundred thousand dollars. In addition there are number of real estate flips that appear to drive hundreds of thousands in additional profit to certain third parties.
4. State Environmental Quality Review Act: wind developers have carefully selected and then paid small Lead Agencies to accept Environmental Impact Statements that are entirely without merit. Throughout the review process hundreds of pages of expert testimony is simply ignored. There is no consideration of legitimate third party scientific analysis of the environmental impacts of these projects, and there is no attempt whatsoever at reasonable mitigation of hazards. In short, the citizens of New York have no environmental protection and are being forced to take matters into their own hands.
Economic Development Concerns
1. Tourism: the most significant economic development engine for the Central Finger Lakes is tourism. There is no other aspect of economic opportunity that is so consistent with our rural heritage and values. Unfortunately, studies from around the world have demonstrated that industrial wind projects are not compatible with tourism in the countryside. The developers have maintained that their projects will not damage the golden goose of our economy but they are once again completely wrong. The net annual impact from industrial wind developments will reduce our tourism revenue by tens of millions of dollars, and cost us thousands of good jobs.
2. Property Values: the developers paid for a "study" several years ago that concluded that wind developments had no negative impact on the value of sited or adjacent, or nearby properties. We now have valid and independent reports from developments in Mars Hill ME, Meyersdale PA, and Garrett County MD, which demonstrate that the impact of wind developments on property values is devastating. Not only have nearby properties lost most of their value, many impacted properties have lost all of their value. These properties are now considered "un-saleable". Retirees who have relocated to these scenic locales now find that their retirement nest eggs (their new retirement homes) are worth nothing although they continue to have six figure mortgage obligations. Fair and caring elected officials must take an interest in the plights of these fine people.
3. Decommissioning: at some point down the road every wind project will have outlived its usefulness and will need to be dismantled. Unfortunately the developers have refused to set side the monies for safe and complete decommissioning and remediation. It will be left to small rural towns to find the hundreds of millions dollars to cover this expense.
4. New Business Development: attracting new businesses to upstate New York, particularly to rural upstate, is a major challenge. The few opportunities for business growth rely on our natural assets: scenic beauty, rural character, and heritage values. The construction of thousands of industrial wind turbines will destroy our natural assets and create an economic development wasteland. Public policy must take into account the negative economic impact of wind turbines in rural upstate.
5. Upstate vs. Downstate Generation capacity: upstate New York has excess electricity generation capacity and is a net exporter of power. Downstate is a net importer of power and is the one region where power demand is growing substantially. The solution to electrical demand in New York is not to build wind projects in upstate but to build clean conventional capacity in the NYC region. We also recommend that NYSERDA should be instructed to get out of the wind energy business entirely and begin to devote their capabilities on the only sensible and safe long-term energy, commercial fusion.
CWW requests your direct involvement in a statewide investigation into an organized scheme to defraud the State of New York and burden the hard pressed tax payers to bear the financial consequences. The public health and safety risks of dangerous siting are of little concern to the developers. These same developers have provided State agencies with deceitful representations in their rush to erect projects far too large for the areas under development.
Governor Spitzer, groups of concerned citizens from across the state need your help. Please support an active investigation and coordinate with AG Cuomo in a comprehensive task force to look into the illegal practices of the wind industry, and to formulate sound energy policy based on economic considerations and scientific expertise.
Cordially,
James Hall for CWW
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