Cohocton windfarm to get $74M taxpayer payout

Cohocton, N.Y.

Out of $230 million to build the Cohocton wind turbine project, $74.65 million will be paid for courtesy of your tax dollars.

The U.S. Department of Treasury announced Tuesday more than half a billion dollars in stimulus funding for wind and solar energy projects, including millions for the 50 wind turbines built by Massachusetts-based wind firm First Wind outside the Village of Cohocton.

The total received is split between Canandaigua Power Partners and Canandaigua Power Partners II, two separate limited-liability corporations that are wholly-owned by First Wind.

Canandaigua Power Partners, which governs the turbines placed on Pine, Lent and Brown hills around Cohocton, received $52.35 million, while Canandaigua Power Partners II, which controls the 12 turbines on Dutch Hill, received $22.3 million.

Messages left with John Lamontagne, communications directors for First Wind, were not immediately returned.

The tax credit program was created as part of the stimulus package and is expected to provide more than $3 billion in tax credits for renewable energy projects. A Treasury department estimate states more than 2,000 people were employed manufacturing and installing the projects that received tax credits Tuesday.

While the credits are being lauded by the Obama administration, some in Washington are speaking out against the funding.

U.S. Rep. Eric Massa, D-29 — who was adamant about his opposition to the project as early as 2007 — said he will start working to stop the funding.

“This is outrageous, at a time of increasing fiscal strain, to use these funds for this purpose,” Massa said this morning. “To repair broken turbines put in place by a foreign corporation is simply wrong.”

“It facilitates the predatory actions of a foreign company.”

The package was lauded by President Barack Obama’s administration and received Massa’s vote in February, but the freshman congressman said that does not change his opposition to helping fund the Cohocton wind project.

“I don’t care which administration is doing it,” Massa said. “I will fight it tooth and nail against it. I will make it an issue.”