Whoa ! Blow Me Away!

The Wind Turbine That Could Have Blown Me Over ….Or Not ! Talk about topics full of hot air. With the introduction of wind turbines in Upstate NY, especially the Finger Lakes area, the division has started with those for and of course those against. In the past I have taken a back seat to these discussions, not clearly understanding the controversy. As I receive more information from different sides of the coin, I get a better understanding of of the issue at hand.

The Cohocton Wind Watch Group closely monitors the situation in Cohocton as well as in neighboring communities. If you visit their website you can see video of the installation of a wind turbine at various stages. This watch group has their own website and legal action campaign and are against the installation of any turbines in the area. Their concerns are:

decrease in property value
excessive noise
unusable property
damaged views of the landscape

There is also a group in Penn Yan, NY called the Progressives that contains members that are definitely against the installation of these wind catchers. Some of the members are afraid that the area will no longer maintain its natural beauty.

I always associated wind turbines with ecological groups, so it was very confusing to me to find out that it was these exact groups of people that are actually against the turbines.

During a visit to Costa Rica a few years ago, I took many pictures of the wind turbines especially when the sun was setting. I found a certain beauty in them rising from the hill tops against a rainbow of colors in the sky. Talking to many of the locals, I found they were proud of the way their country supplied energy. Along with the wind turbines, Costa Rica also harnesses hydro electric power.

So using wind turbines made sense to me, but I realized I had never seen any in the United States. It was only three years ago that I had never seen a turbine and now throughout the Finger Lakes I either hear controversy about them or can actually see them on the hills in Steuben County. On my way to a Resort Property business trip in Albany last month, I also noticed some of the turbines in the distance from the New York Thruway.