PRESS RELEASE Issued by the Western Catskill Preservation Alliance, Stamford, NY

“PRESS RELEASE”
“For immediate release”

Issued by the Western Catskill Preservation Alliance, Stamford, NY
(www.westerncatskillpreservationalliance.org)

February 13, 2008

Contact: Ron Karam, President, WCPA, rkaram@gmail.com, 201-414-7506
WPCA Withdraws Article 78 Lawsuit

“Best chance for defeating Invenergy”

The Western Catskill Preservation Alliance (WCPA) today announced that they are withdrawing the Article 78 lawsuit filed against the Town of Stamford and Invenergy. “The Article 78 is being withdrawn because it is in the very best interest of the people of Stamford, most of who oppose the Industrial Wind Turbine project.” According to Ron Karam, WCPA President, “The original intent of the lawsuit was to challenge the process in which the town developed Local Law No. 1 of 2007, “Wind Energy Facilities” and to overturn the ordinance. If we were successful in overturning the law, our goal was to work with the town to put in place a stricter ordinance with scientifically based setback requirements that would better protect the landowners.”

The Article 78 lawsuit was filed in the County of Chenango on June 16, 2007, and with arguments heard by Judge Dowd in July, the WCPA was expecting a decision by September 2007. “We were expecting a ruling in favor of the WCPA well before Invenergy submitted its application. This would have allowed the town to revise its ordinance, hopefully with stricter setbacks, before Invenergy would submit its application” according to Karam, “As it turned out, with the elapsed time, Invenergy submitted its application before the court’s ruling and made the mistake of filing an application in which it ignored the setbacks requirements clearly defined in the ordinance. If Invenergy had submitted a compliant application, our decision to withdraw the application might have been different.”

While the WCPA and its supporters would rather have had a “formal” ruling on the lawsuit, the decision to withdraw the Article 78 was an easy one. “With the recent favorable Article 78 rulings against wind development throughout New York State it was highly likely the WCPA would have won the lawsuit. According to the WCPA all indications pointed in that direction. “If we had won the lawsuit and the ordinance was overturned, the Town of Stamford would have been left without an ordinance and without the ability to put a moratorium in place since Invenergy had already submitted its application.” says Karam, “As it stands today, with the current setbacks and the fact that none of the turbines proposed by Invenergy are compliant with Stamford’s law, had we won the Article 78, there would be no governing law. Therefore, the town and the impacted landowners would have no basis to challenge the location of all ten turbines proposed in Stamford. This would have been an untenable situation for Stamford.”

By withdrawing the Article 78, the Stamford wind ordinance will remain unchallenged and therefore, according to the WCPA, none of the proposed turbines can be constructed due to the setback violations. “One of the good things about the Stamford ordinance, which we can thank Supervisor Triolo for, is that section 1.06 prohibits any variance to the setbacks requirements unless both the town and the affected landowners agree to the variance” Karam says, “Since Invenergy completely ignored the town’s requirements by siting the turbines near non-participating residential homes and property boundaries, the decision was easy and gives the WCPA and the landowners the best chance of defeating Invenergy.”

About the WCPA

The Western Catskill Preservation Alliance was formed in 2006 to fight the construction of industrial wind turbines which will have a devastating impact on our rural lands and wilderness. Our members and supporters include working families and retirees, full-time residents and second homeowners, professionals and farmers. Our charter is to preserve and protect the natural beauty of the Catskill Mountains and surrounding areas in the Towns of Stamford, Roxbury and Gilboa from over development, including industrial wind turbine development. To join or donate to the WCPA write to wcpa06@aol.com.