Addie Russell's Article X Comments ... A Fractured Fairy Tale???

This  morning a lot of people are excited about the Article X forum in Watertown last night where Assemblywoman Addie Russell claims an A -10 siting board won’t allow wind turbines in our area.  I must admit that got my attention too, and I really want to lean towards being encouraged.  But I have been in his wind battle a long time, and we have been in these exact places of encouragement before, only to be fooled and our hopes dashed by political double talk.  Let me give you a prime example.  I worked very hard along with others on the efforts that brought then  NY AG Andrew Cuomo to town to do an investigation of our wind conflicted town officials.  You can’t imagine how excited I was when they announced the CV investigation. That was huge news around the region and it even hit state media, and national anti wind sites. We were all excited.  But what happened to that? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.  It was clear it turned out  to be  a move of political expediency to get Cuomo elected and keep us calmed down and happy. It was a part of his clean govt and integrity scam.  Geee, I don’t know, do ya think maybe Cuomo is at it again with this forum calming down the masses who continue to give him a headache on the wind issue? Naaaa, couldn’t be that!!!  Trying to convince us to pass nice little uncontroversial wind law compromises so he doesn’t have to run around the state and do the extremely nasty political dirty work full of potential laws suits to preempt local laws when communities get smart and prohibit turbines. I don’t think we should be doing his dirty work for him through Article 10 threats.   I think there is a great deal of possibility that this was nothing more than a political stunt designed to keep us calm and head us toward compromise and wind laws just like before.  Like I said, they realize if communities REALLY take control of their destinies and say NO, that they have staggering political problems. Russell was speaking in an area that is a hotbed of anti wind sentiment and she knows it. What is she going to say?  She is, in my view, still walking both sides of the wind fence. She did not say she was against wind, and apparently implied that the Galloo Is. project might be ok and that nobody would see the turbines. Is she kidding??? So does this mean she is OK with the insane subsidy scheme that supports wind even if it is in other places than our region.  I agree with Wiley at JLL that we need to be REAL careful here and not let our guard down. Others I have talked to express a similar view.  This doesn’t pass my personal sniff test although the words “seem” encouraging.

Here are some other considerations about Russell's and Cahill’s comments last night that I think we need to pay close attention to. There is history here by which we can actually measure these comments and that will bring us more clarity.

Cahill claims the DEC is going to play a significant part in Article X.  Would that be the same DEC that has been told by various NY governors to be hands off on the NY wind issue? That was told to me by several former important DEC players.  Is this the same DEC that gave wind conflicted Edsall and his  badly wind conflicted planning  board the lead agency on the wind projects when there was a dispute with Lyme as to who would control the lead agency? You mean THAT DEC that completely ignored the conflicts and let Edsall completely control the SEQR FEIS!!??   The same DEC that commented on the Acciona FEIS that was a completely corrupted document due to wind conflicts, but that DEC had no comments on the conflicts and how they corrupted the study to the point it was useless.  I even wrote former DEC Commissioner Pete Granis about all this, and the reply was basically “we don’t get into that”  Is that the DEC Cahill is referring too?  Doesn’t make me real warm and fuzzy!

Russell claims A-10 will not allow turbines in our area and we should pass reasonable wind laws if we want to discourage  them.  Well first, I don’t think she has the authority to make such a sweeping statement that an A-10 board will prohibit turbines here. She is not on a siting board.  And the logic here is real damn fuzzy.  So let me get this straight Addie…you claim  the state can come here and prohibit turbines, but WE can’t do it ourselves to protect our communities as we see fit ???????  Aaaahhh isn’t this big brother govt still telling our communities what the hell we can do and preempting home rule? And she is supporting that?  That is an interesting slight of hand!!  Oh we can prohibit turbines in your town, but by God don’t you try to do it!  I don’t think we should buy into that BS. This logic is nuts.  Whether we prohibit turbines outrigh , or whether we do it through a wind law that claims to make the state happy, we still end up in the exact same place…NO turbines!!!  She claims we can’t do it because it won’t hold up in court.  I guess this means the developers are going to just roll over and not go to court if the state runs around and prohibits turbines in scenic places where the best wind resources are?  In  this area we are talking deep pockets BP.  Is she suggesting that they would never go to court with the state to get their hands on our prime wind resources just because the state, and not we, say they can’t have them.  Time to get back to reality!!!!  How about we give the developers a double punch. How about this Ms. Russell , we prohibit them, and you get off your “some wind is ok pedestal” and back us up?.  How about that as proof you are sincere and we can believe what you say? Now there is a novel concept!!!

The state is rabid for wind. The governor is rabid for wind. The DEC has been told hands off.  They are inundated with wind lobbyists.  They have a renewable portfolio standard that requires utilities to purchase wind power, and they have very aggressive goals for renewables (wind) by whatever the latest date is 20% by 2020 or whatever.  And now Russell is telling us that right here in one of the most scenic and best wind resources in NY and places like it, that no turbines are going to be placed, and that wind is dead. Hhhmmm, if the A-10 siting boards are going to be that sensitive to the scenic resources of NY, then the state is going to have one hell of a time reaching it’s wind energy goals.  Once again this doesn’t add up.

So do we have any evidence of the states credibility to follow through on what Russell is claiming?  Well, actually yes we do.  Remember that Cuomo and now AG Schneiderman were supposed to investigate Cape Vincent officials' conflicts of interest?  Ooooppps…that’s right, they never followed through on their promises.  And what about Cuomo?  The local voters threw his buddy Sen. Aubetine under the bus, but Cuomo, at the exact time he should have been  investigating Aubertine and his CV wind shenanigans, appoints him to a cushy government post essentially telling us local anti wind and other voters in Upstate NY to go screw ourselves, THEN he shoved it to us a little harder and passed Article 10! Once again, this doesn’t make me real warm and fuzzy considering that Cuomo has a lot more power than Russell, and could dominate any A-10 siting board decision.

Now considering all this, and that Cuomo is still a popular pro wind governor with a lot of power who will probably run for President, do you really  think we should be so enthusiastic about Russell’s comments, a representative of the same state that Cuomo controls with a popular fist?

Remember the old Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons? . They had a segment called “Fractured Fairy Tales”  Well I think there is a good chance that is exactly what this is. And although fairy tales make us all feel good, and are for children.  We are all adults here , hardened by 7 years of wind battle, and should know better, especially when we have seen so many other fairytales handed to us in the wind issue.  Aren’t fairytales what our parents used to put us to sleep at bedtime?  I suggest we stay wide awake and not let Cuomo and the state lull us to sleep with a fairy tale.

BUT…still a little part of me hopes Russell is correct in her claim, but I want to see actual follow- through results and more commitment,not just a  "middle of the wind road one night stands"  in Watertown before a hotbed of anti wind sentiment.

And BTW what about Russell's commenst that she apparently said nobody will see the Galloo Island Wind Project or something to that effect?  The picture below was taken at the Wescott Beach S.P. scenic overlook.  From here you have a stunning scenic panorama of Eastern Lake Ontario and much of the Golden Crescent. AND from here you can easily see the Wolfe Is.wind  turbines, 25 or 30 miles away.  The Gallo turbines will be right in your face and spoil one of the most spectacular views in NYS or even in the Northeastern  US.  Is she really that out of touch on the wind issue, and as a result would that mean we should be just a little suspicious of her Article X claims?