So Where Was The" Anti Wind" You Got SWINDLED!!!

Recently there was an article in the Watertown Daily Times regarding Cape Vincent Councilman John Byrne’s announcement to run against current NY Assemblywoman Addie Russell.  Below is a quote from the article about Byrne’s stand on industrial wind development.

“Mr. Byrne was a member of Wind Power Ethics Group, an organization widely perceived as being opposed to the development of large-scale wind turbine projects, but Mr. Byrne said he does not oppose wind projects, provided proper setbacks are established and adhered to for the turbines.

Now I find this real interesting.  Let me see if I get this straight. Here we have an avid Hirschey WPEG elected official, elected on an "anti wind" premise.  He is aspiring to a more powerful NYS elected office.  Apparently by his own words he is not opposed to industrial wind energy and one would have to assume the subsidies that support it. Nor as part of the Hirschey Cape Vincent govt would he oppose Cuomo's Art X that removed our home rule rights, but instead fully supported and appeased it, and then supported a wind law that allows some wind development in CV. And this is the bullshit he is going to take to Albany???? So does somebody want to explain to me how these magic tricks protect the 1000 Islands?????

But wait.  Seems like Mr. Byrne is making himself part of the exact problem we have been fighting all along!  And people think I have been helping pro wind....give me a freakin break!!!

Yet despite all this you don't hear a single peep about this from the WPEG / Hirschey camp!  That is because the bottom line is they scammed you!   

Read on!

Really John?????  Not opposed to wind energy?????  Knowing all the scam and  faults of wind energy and its invasive impacts and all that at the cost to the tax payer needed to support this wind scam, and dealing first hand with the disaster it created in your community  for nearly a decade…you still aren’t against it?????

 

And riding to victory in CV politics on the premise you were anti wind…and you now suddenly are NOT opposed to wind energy.  Seems you have some explaining to do to the voters who supported you.

SEROIUSLY!!!!!

First let’s clarify a couple things.  One, I have worked closely with Byrne hand in hand on a number of important wind issues during the CV wind battle. So I have some insights on Mr. Byrne.  I’m not strictly an outside observer when I make my comments about him. 

Second, Byrne was more than a member of WPEG.  He was for a while the president, and before that the right hand man to Urban Hirschey who was also a WPEG president for a period of time before he became CV town supervisor.

So if WPEG was so widely perceived to be opposed to large scale wind development, or “anti wind”… how exactly was that supposed to be if both Byrne and Hirschey are not opposed to industrial wind development? 

Hirschey indicated right on TV and in private conversations and other places  that he was not anti wind.  And Byrne now says he is not opposed to industrial wind development as long as they are sited properly.  A position Hirschey also shares.  Well of course! Byrne has always been on a short Hirschey leash!

Yet these two men were the president of WPEG at different times.  The supposed anti wind group…which they never were and is why I departed from them and their milk toast position. 

Now how about the rest of the Hirschey town board?

In my opinion based on many long and detailed discussions with former CV councilman Clif Schneider he was not opposed to wind energy either, and took the same basic position as Byrne and Hirschey. 

Then there is CV councilman Brooks Bragdon who took the same position.  In fact on video in a public meeting with BP in Oct 2012 he declares he is willing to work with BP closely if they abide by our zoning law…which actually does allow some wind development!

 Then there was former councilwoman Michelle Oswald who turned out to be very disappointing, who declared to be anti wind at least in CV but went right along with the Hirschey appeasement of Art X and a zoning law that actually allows some wind development.

And what about that “proper siting” crap they like to appease everybody with.  I guess according to the actual CV zoning law they wrote, which is also not opposed to wind development, all these people think proper siting is to push the turbines back on other people who don't pay the big waterfront taxes, and on other town borders exactly as our wind zoning regulations do. 

 

So much for proper siting!!!

And what about Mr.  Macsherry our new CV deputy supervisor?  If you read this blog or have a clear picture of the past you have seen the story on him.  In 2009 he was running with, all cozy with, and campaigning with, the pro wind Rienbeck crowd. So how does he end up as the town’s dep. super. on a supposed anti wind board?????? 

 

In my opinion in Macsherry’s case he is like a wind sock going whichever way the wind is blowing…or where the power seems to be forming.  In 2009 when it appeared pro wind had the power and wind development was a significant possibility, he blew with them ignoring Hirschey and WPEG. When Hirschey and crew came to power Macsherry once again blew with the wind that powered Hirschey’s rise to power which would result in Macsherry’s rise to power.  And now he may be considered for an empty town board seat too since Schneider resigned.  I guess the wind is blowing  pretty good for Macsherry lately.

Then there was that pesky Zogby poll Hirschey was a big promoter of.  What was the agenda there?  If you look at all the numbers carefully on the wind issue it actually came out that the majority of the community was not opposed to at least some type of wind development.  The somewhat opposed and somewhat in favor results mean those people were not outright anti wind…just cautious or concerned. 

Was Hirschey so out of touch to believe the information bubble created by his supporters and the other  blogs that the town majority was clearly anti wind?   I doubt it.  I think he had a clue and knew the town was divided just as the poll indicated, and maybe as he might have hoped.  Was the agenda then to use the poll as support for his position to not be fully opposed to wind energy, which we now know he and Byrne and others aren’t, and get a compromise and develop a law that did not oppose wind energy, just like our law which does not oppose wind energy!

And in the end not one of these people were willing to publicly declare themselves against wind.  So where was the “anti wind.”  The media should know better if they are credible.  But the pro wind anti wind us against them, seasonal against local drama sells much better.

Fact is true anti wind  has never existed, and still doesn’t if you are looking to find it in our town govt or WPEG.

Yet conveniently anti wind stuck to them and for political expediency they chose not to correct it.  They gave out a vague impression of anti wind…then the other Hirschey PR blogs and media did their part to perpetuate the anti wind illusion, and Hirschey and crew let their supporters fill in the blanks and believe they were anti wind, when they are not.

 In fact in the big election push of 2011 they said virtually nothing about wind in any regard, and purposefully made ethics the issue to defelct any stance on  the wind issue. They wanted the illusion to persist, and didn’t want people actually asking any tough wind stance questions.  The Hirschey blogs and his supporters were more that happy to oblige.  

And where Byrne had declared on the JLL blog in the spring of 2011 to be opposed to wind development in CV, by fall he saw his insider Hirschey support dwindling because of that public stance and decided it was not a good thing for his political future to be so “anti wind”.   He wasn’t about to bite the Hirschey hand that was politically feeding him!  And there is a lot more to that story and it goes back to Hirschey’s and Byrne’s 2009 election efforts!

Then after all this the entire crew went lock step and wrote a zoning law that allows some wind development in CV and fully supported and appeased Art X, that removed our rights, which in very large part was put in place to ensure wind development… as the Hirschey supporters obediently slid right along in a anti wind illusion. 

Then you have Bob Brown who is now the CV PB chairman and was chairman of the committee that drafted our new zoning.  He declares on NPR radio that our zoning in regards to wind energy was not meant ot prohibit anything.  He also set up the committee to not consider a prohibition of industrial  wind energy as some towns have done, and refused to take any input in that regard.  Instead Brown and crew guided our law on wind development to be written with the full appeasement and in fear of  the State’s Art X mechanism Cuomo intended to ensure wind development.

The fact is, in the big picture this govt and WPEG support the NYS’s and Cuomo’s ridiculous wind energy agenda, nor will they oppose Cuomo’s  mechanism (Art X) that supports wind development.  Instead they are willing to support it…and are willing to kiss its ass in a disgusting appeasement process. So does somebody want to explain to me where the “anti wind” is in all this?  They can’t have it both ways.  If you are not opposed to industrial wind development…then you can’t be against it too.  Well…for a moment I had a logic lapse…these people after all are politicians…so I guess if voters are willing to be that stupid, I guess you can get away with having it both ways when it suits your political agenda…like Byrne!

If they were not willing to oppose wind energy, like Byrne and Hirschey and others around them claim they don’t,  and  it’s just a matter of siting, then I guess they support the absurd tax subsidies and PILOTs that keeps wind energy afloat, and must support the ridiculous invasive wind scam and its unreliable power production.

So apparently this means that if BP had just placed their turbines correctly according to them, they were OK with that and wind energy and the local and national tax subsidies, and doing business with BP in CV.  And apparently that would mean as long as Iberdrola places their turbines correctly in our region  they are OK with that too and the subsidies needed to support it?

Wind energy is a scam, with tremendous wide ranging invasive  impacts. So why are Byrne and the Hirschey crew willing to support it????

  And with Art X we could have another wind developer in CV tomorrow, and they would be in the Art X process with a town govt once again willing to appease that system and who supports wind energy based on their own actions and words…and zoning law.  That is a bit frightening!

In my opinion…if you think WPEG was anti wind, or that Hirschey and crew were anti wind and you voted for them on that premise, or you now think it was a huge anti wind effort in CV that defeated BP…

...then you got badly scammed!!!! 

Oh and by the way Mr. Byrne…before you did the WDT article claiming you are not opposed to large scale industrial wind development… I hope you remembered to remove the anti wind bumper  sticker from your car that said  SWINDLE!  I guess the WDT and the general public didn’t know about that!!!

I’m not an Addie Russell fan or supporter, but at least she was willing to stand up and oppose Art X with an actual vote.  Something Byrne or the entire Hirschey govt was unwilling to do even in a simple  non binding political resolution of opposition as the Jefferson County legislators did unanimously!