State fails to lead on wind energy

Canandaigua, N.Y.

Every new headline on wind turbines in the region documents another failure of the state to lead on an issue of importance to an increasing number of towns.
West of Rochester, the town of Hamlin, Monroe County, has adopted wind energy regulations following two years of sometimes angry debate, typically over how far turbines should be allowed from homes or property lines. Those who planned to lease land for turbines argued for a 1,000-foot setback. Opponents offered a variety of suggestions from 1,700 feet all the way to 1 1/2 miles.

Setbacks could spark a conflict between Naples, Ontario County, and Prattsburgh, Steuben County. Turbines for a wind farm in Prattsburgh would come within 500 feet of the Naples town line, though Naples residents have no say in the matter.

In a related issue, the Naples and Prattsburgh school districts are suing to get a share of the payment in lieu of taxes on the proposed Prattsburgh wind project. They realized too late that they had been left out of the deal.

Wind energy is not a local issue. Small towns and schools don’t have the high-priced lawyers and experts to evaluate a project or fight on their behalf when payment in lieu of taxes agreements are inked. Nor do they have jurisdiction on projects that might be just over the town or district line.

Before New York began its push for renewable energy, it should have funded objective research into the proper siting of wind towers. Surely somewhere between 1,000 feet and 1 1/2 miles is a setback that most people and wind energy companies can live with.

The state also should have set up ground rules for payment in lieu of tax agreements, requiring notification of all parties and general percentages based on how much of the project is in a given jurisdiction.

Instead, the state has stacked the deck in favor of wind energy companies, starting with former Gov. George Pataki’s executive order on June 30, 2001 — and continued by former Gov. Eliot Spitzer on Jan. 1, 2007 — that all state agencies buy 10 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2005 and 20 percent by 2010. Those orders turned the development of wind, hydro and other forms of renewable energy from desirable to a public imperative. The state Public Service Commission cited those orders in granting subsidiaries of UPC New York Wind, itself a subsidiary of UPC Wind Partners, permission to build the Cohocton and Dutch Hill wind farms, a total of 57 turbines, largely north and northeast of the village of Cohocton.

Wind turbines may yet have a valuable place among other forms of energy, each with its own advantages and drawbacks. Nuclear plants leave us with radioactive waste; the burning of natural gas, coal and oil — though oil is not a big player in electricity — pollute and are getting increasingly expensive.

State lawmakers manage to issue a press release on every headline of the day, from sex offender registries to a proposal for a gas-tax holiday. They are strangely silent on the gradual, haphazard implementation of wind utilities across the state. The time of leadership has come and nearly gone.