Another wind power vote

Another Southern Tier wind farm may be voted up or down tonight. Elected leaders in the town of Howard, Steuben County are scheduled to vote on granting a license to EverPower Wind Holdings, which wants to erect about 25 wind turbines in the town.

The Howard project will be closely watched, as the track record in this part of the state has been mixed. To be sure, there is a working wind farm with 50 turbines in Cohocton, the town immediately north of Howard. And to the northwest in Wyoming County, there are four farms with 236 turbines total by my count.

But a citizens group in the Wyoming County town of Orangeville has filed suit in hopes of halting what it considers an ill-conceived project there. And in Prattsburgh, another Steuben county town, one wind developer walked away from a proposal. A second developer, Ecogen Wind, is in a protracted legal battle with town officials who haven’t been supportive of that company’s proposal. Ecogen also is suing the neighboring town of Italy, Yates County, where half of the 33-turbine project would be built.

In Howard, EverPower filed a public disclosure statement indicating that it has done business with several members of the town board and planning board by leasing land from them for turbines or infrastructure. The disclosure was filed in accord with the voluntary “code of ethics” for wind developers negotiated by the state Attorney General’s office. Citizens in Howard have complained about conflicts of interest, and unsuccessfully brought a lawsuit over a conflict of interest claim a couple of years ago.

This potential for conflict of interest - major landowners in rural towns often serve on elected or appointed boards - is a major bugaboo in upstate New York. Citizen groups in Orangeville and numerous other towns where turbines are proposed have raised similar concerns.

You can read more about the proposal at the company’s Web site. If opponents have a Web site, I haven’t found it yet.

We’ll post results of the town action as soon as we get them.