National Renowned Anti Wind Fighter John Droz Writes A Letter To The NYPSC On Behalf Of The Cape Vincent 1000 Islands Region - But There Is Much More Relevance And History To This Story !

Read on if you would like to see the real relevance of this letter and an inside view of John Droz's interesting history with the Cape Vincent wind battle.

As many know I am not a fan of writing the NYPSC, but below after my comments you can read nationally renowned anti wind fighter John Droz’s excellent letter to the NYPSC on behalf of Cape Vincent and the 1000 Islands. It is posted along with comments on Pandora’s blog as well. As with many things in the CV wind battle there are deeper stories and histories that many may not be aware of. Such is the case with John and his relationship to the Cape Vincent wind issue.

As usual John’s excellent comments to the PSC get directly at the meat of the issue about the industrial wind scam and its failure and why it doesn’t belong here. You will be hard pressed to find a more dedicated industrial wind fighter anywhere,or anyone who can present the wind scam in a clear scientifically backed easy to understand manner since John is a physicist . His presentations have enlightened many people…some very important as well. They have also upset some very influential people too. It is interesting to note that John’s effectiveness in exposing the industrial wind scam has brought threats on his life and nasty official attacks by the Sierra Club. Our town officials should be taking a lesson from Droz’s efforts, yet it is hard to believe after all this time and information from prominent experts like Droz that some still reject it even now as he writes letters to the NYPSC on our behalf.

Although John Droz tends to work on the national level on the anti wind issue, many may not know that he has an interesting connection to the Cape Vincent wind battle. I have had the distinct privilege to know John as many in Cape Vincent have not, and as a result there is some interesting history to tell. He very definitely had a hand in shaping my views on wind energy, although we may differ some on approaches to defeat it.

I met John back in 2008 after he contacted me about a letter I had written to the WDT rabidly against industrial wind and its supporters, and he offered some suggestions how to effectively fight our battle. I had the opportunity to visit with John and his wife at his home a couple times. He began sending me some of his writings and presentations to be critiqued. On one visit with John he presented me with a power point style presentation to comment on. I was extremely impressed with John’s simple clear scientific message about the lack of science to support wind energy as a climate and energy solution, and his overall clear explanations of the workings of the electric grid and how wind energy failed on many counts to be a reliable cost effective scientifically viable energy or climate solution. I was honored to submit suggestions to his writing and presentations. I immediately told John it was critical that he must bring this information to Cape Vincent and other local communities at the heart of the NNY industrial wind battle, and the sooner the better. He agreed to do that if he was invited. I assured him I would work hard to make it happen. If you were lucky you probably saw John’s presentation at the TI High School or at other NNY places.


But here is where the John Droz story has an interesting twist, especially to all of you who consider yourselves so “anti wind “ and see the credibility of his message now. I was still with WPEG in those days and immediately started heavily promoting John’s ideas and putting the pressure on the WPEG leadership to bring John to CV for a major presentation. I also suggested that John’s presentation be the ONLY presentation we support and endorse if they agree to invite him. I felt as the opposition group it was not our place to be providing venues to the industrial wind side as we had in othr presentations, and to BP and Acciona and their shills like VFW and Marion Trieste just so we looked “look fair and responsible” and not “against” wind energy. After what was happening in our community at the hands of industrial wind and its supporters, I could have cared less about being “fair” to them, and besides they regularly had informational open houses and we never were asked to attend with our information, nor did we even protest at those events. A few in WPEG agreed with this approach, to bring John and his message to CV. However, all this did not sit well with Urban Hirschey or his wife and a few others in WPEG and even a few in other local wind opposition groups. Hard to believe now isn’t it? Urban is now our town supervisor, but at that time was the head of the WPEG “wind opposition” group and he was oppsed to Droz and his message.

You see in those days to take any public unapologetic tough NO wind stance as I and a few others did was not popular with many in the “wind opposition.” as it is with some now. Now it is much safer to be publicly and socially anti wind. Well except for our town officials. But back then we had to be “fair”. We had to look like we were only “concerned”. We had to talk setbacks. We could not be “against” wind energy or renewables. To be anti wind was like a poison you didn’t dare talk about or touch. And John Droz was the credible scientist who dared talk about the poison and showed you why it WAS poison. That made John and his message dangerous, radical, and unacceptable to some in the CV opposition and WPEG.

Despite Droz’s clear precise scientific message about wind’s failures, Mr. Hirschey did not like John Droz’s hard nosed, scientific, completely unapologetic anti wind approach, and did not want him to come to CV with his presentation and he did not want a presentation that did not include the pro wind side. John is a very direct person with a very direct and pointed message, yet the Hirsheys and some in WPEG didn’t think Droz’s message was credible. Much like the same attacks I have received from the Hirschey camp for being so anti wind and wanting to ban wind energy in CV on it primary failures and scams.

Eventually we overruled Urban and John did come to make an excellent presentation in CV to a large audience at the TI School, which ended in a long long round of heavy applause. Like myself many people were very impressed and John’s presentation made the pro wind presentation look ridiculous. It was a hoot and a pleasure to see Marion Trieste squirm and make faces like a juvenile as she could see the audience accepting Droz’s message. She knew they could not credibly counter his message and it was driving her nuts!!!

So here we are today with John Droz’s letter to the NY PSC. Despite my great respect for John we don’t always agree, and have had our heated and detailed conversations on approaches. Seems to me John’s excellent efforts would be better aimed at our town board and other town officials who have written wind zoning regulations that could allow some of BP’s giant wind turbines, or are promoting the idea of an industrial solar project or other large commercial renewable project of some kind for CV, to which John clearly opposes as unreliable and a waste of time, energy, and money. Maybe he could straighten out our board that conjuring up “wish lists” to get what you can from BP is not the proper way to truly oppose industrial wind.

You see, believe it or not, unlike John Droz our board has never even addressed the real issues and failures of wind energy as a technology and climate / energy solution. They are all wound up in health safety and welfare and birds and noise and the PLACEMENT of wind turbines as if wind energy in some form is still a viable energy climate solution. Mind you these are all legitimate issues, but they skirt around the meat of the real wind problem. Wind energy is a destructive scam and failure and for those primary reasons it does not belong in CV or the 1000 Islands. Our town officials and zoning committee delicately skirted completely around the real issues in our zoning that John Droz confronts so directly. So why? The best they can come up with is that wind is a “bad fit” for Cape Vincent. Really???? No… it’s an unscientific political/corporate tax scam, and ineffective and unreliable and complete failure to address our climate and energy issues.

Where the hell is THAT statement from our town board…you will never see it.

What’s so ironic about John Doz’s PSC letter is that his clear statements on the meat of the issue about wind energy’s failures and scams are still like poison to our town officials even though Droz is expressing that view on their behalf to the Art X process. It is my belief that Urban and our town board still don’t really believe wind energy is a failure and may be a viable solution. Maybe you should ask them about the matter on this level some time. Thus we have wind regulations that will not ban wind because it is an obvious failure and scam, but skirts carefully around the real issue trying to avoid what John Droz has made so scientifically obvious.

If you support John Droz's letter and general message then the next time you see Mr. Hirschey or Clif Schneider for that matter ask them what they think of John Droz’s hard nosed, scientifically backed tough anti wind message. Then ask Hirschey why he didn’t want John’s excellent message in Cape Vincent back in the formative years of the wind battle when it really mattered. Ask him why he still rejects it, when many in his community have accepted it. I will get to that at the end of this post.

I noted some positive comments to John’s PSC letter on the Pandora’s Box of Rocks blog. But be careful commenters, and keep in mind who you are praising. This is a man who is staunchly anti wind and staunchly against the tax scams that support it, and has been for a long long time and dedicated a great deal of his life and time standing hard directly against industrial wind development, not appeasing it and it’s political supporters. This is a man who has many times tried to convince community leaders in many places like CV they should eliminate wind from their communities, not play zoning games with it. A position I have also held for a long long time in part from the education John gave me on the wind issue. You are praising a man that some top leaders on your town board are still at odds with over his very strong anti wind beliefs. Ironic isn’t it? As you praise Droz make sure you understand that and how it relates to Hirschey and some of our current town officials he lords over with his appeasement don’t be too controversial approach to BP Art. X and the wind scam.

That is some of the story of nationally renowned John Droz’s connection to Cape Vincent and how and why it mattered then….and still matters even more right now.

So it makes me wonder how John Droz would feel if he saw this link and Mr. Hirschey’s comments that indicate Hirschey after all this time is still rejecting John Droz’s clear scientific message against wind and that Hirschey is still dominant with his rejection of Droz’s clear credible scientifically backed anti wind message among many of his town officials. Be patient for the video commercial and for the video to load.

http://www.wwnytv.com/news/local/Cape-Vincent-Supervisor-Urban-Hirschey-Wins-Republican-Primary-129775248.html

Seems as if Urban is still not connecting with John Droz's clear credible scientific anti wind message after all this time and evidence!  Instead Hirschey has a "wish list " as to what he wants to get from BP after BP's wind farm goes up!  Not exactly what would be on John Droz's wish list I'm sure!!!

Below is John’s letter to the NYPSC.

 Thanks John for all you have done and exposed! And thanks John for telling like it is! Tell it to our town officials who wrote a appeasement wind law and still want a commercial solar project and are now making wish list for BP!

“We need to waste money on allowing wind power in prime tourist areas like the Thousand Islands, like we need a hole in the head.”    John Droz



Hon. Jaclyn A. Brilling:


Re Matter: 12-02056; Case 12-F-0410


New York State is currently listed as one of the top three worst states to live and do business, in large part to our very high electricity rates.


We need to waste money on allowing wind power in prime tourist areas like the Thousand Islands, like we need a hole in the head. For more job and economic growth, we need affordable, reliable energy, not unreliables like wind energy.


Assuming that global warming is partly attributable to man-made causes, there is zero scientific proof that wind energy has any more than a minuscule effects on CO2 levels. Part of the reason is that there is no such thing as wind energy by itself, as it always requires full-time auxiliary power to be available, which usually gas.

Building gas-fired stations near New York City (where the electricity is needed most), would provide reliable, dispatchable, baseload capacity, that would be cost-effective for all New York State taxpayers and ratepayers. It would actually reduce CO2 emissions (over coal) and prevent the needless environmental degradation, bird & bat carnage, and human health impacts caused by the massive towers associated with antiquated industrial wind facilities.


By spending money and time focusing on trying to make unreliables like wind power a reality, we are wasting limited resources that we could be directing towards a real clean energy future powered by reliable, dispatchable energy sources - like natural gas, mini-nuclear and hydro - that will provide ALL New York citizens with reliable, affordable power, and which will draw jobs to NYS.


Please read this 2/20/13 letter [http://tinyurl.com/b5ksn4x ... attached] from Senator Maziarz (Chairman of the Senate Energy Committee) applies directly to this case at hand. There is no proven NET technical, economic or environmental benefit from locating industrial wind energy in any part of the Thousand Islands region.


I urge you to educate yourself (e.g. EnergyPresentation.Info) about reliable, economic and dispatchable energy sources of the future, and to stop wasting money on the scam of industrial wind power, which makes New York State an inhospitable place to live and do business.


Thank you for your attention to this important matter.


John Droz, jr.

physicist

Brantingham Lake, NY

Hey Cape Vincent Citizens...Come Play the Price is Right!!!

Ladies and Gentlemen it time to play the Price Is Right!!!  What's up for bid today?

Well it's Cape Vincent's prime scenic resources!  Ladies and Gentlemen Cape Vincent sits on the beautiful St. Lawrence River and eastern end of lake Ontario.  It is home to some of NYS's most treasured scenic and environmental resources, and today Ladies and Gentlemen YOU get to bid with BP and the Town Board on those one of a kind scenic treasures!  So let's open the bidding!

Apparently some members of our community and some members of our Town Board think it's time to play The Price is Right with BP over our treasured scenic resources.  Apparently the idea of denying BP a PILOT agreement to force them to leave town  has suddenly been replaced in favor of The Price is Right bidding for everything we can get from BP by auctioning off our scenic treasures for the right price.

But hey...this action should not just be limited to the Town Board and BP.  After all it is our town and scenic wonders up for bid so I think every CV tax payer, voter and property owner should have an opportunity to get in on the action. 

So below are representations of some CV's treasured scenic beauty for you to bid on.  By each scene there is a blank space for you to enter a bid. 

So Now Ladies and Gentlemen...Lets Play the Price Is Right!!!!

Bid  $ _____________________________



                                                         Bid $ ____________________________

Bid $ _________________________________________

Bid $ ________________________________________

Bid $  _______________________________________

Bid $ ___________________________________________

God  attempted to close the bidding on the above item.  However, God's decision was overruled by NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo and BP!

                                      $ Bid  _________________________________________

      Photo By Rollin Hanson     

                                                                       Bid $ _____________________________________

And thank you ladies and gentlemen for playing The Price is Right!!!

 Please stay tuned, the Cape Vincent Town Board may be putting more Cape Vincent scenery up for bid.  You can drive around Cape Vincent to preview the inventory.

  BUT WAIT...there is more.  At the last moment BP offered this item up for bidding!

Bid  $ ______________________________

This item was opened for bidding as well at the last minute by the Town Board.   Bidding on this item is only open to other wind and solar energy developers!

Bid $ ___________________________________

The Truth

For some time now the heading at the top of the Cape Vincent JLL blog says...

"The truth about living in a wind turbine sacrifice zone"

If the real truth is ever revealed it is going to be uglier than you can ever imagine!

Just Fine and Dandy!!!!

While catching up on the Cape Vincent wind news after my travels I notice another disturbing video exchange on the Pandora’s Box of Rocks blog. The exchange was between Harold Wiley and Cape Vincent Town Councilman Clif Schneider.

I was intrigued by Clif’s response to Harold about our zoning law and its industrial wind regulations. Clif’s comment was basically that our law was not designed to keep anybody out, but to protect people in the community. That if BP can abide by our law then Fine and Dandy.

REALLY?????? Fine and Dandy for BP with one of the worst records on the planet to be a part of our community!!!!! SERIOUSLY!!!!

But wait a minute! As I said in a previous post wasn’t the last election of these current town board members all about an anti wind referendum and victory? Let me repeat that… ANTI WIND! We were supposed to elect these Republicans and our industrial wind troubles would be over and they would make it all go away. And now it appears a wish list and a few of those 500 ft BP turbines to get that wish list is just Fine and Dandy!
Are you people sitting by watching this slow evolution AWAKE!!!

So Clif, how many turbines will your precious law allow and just how many of BP’s 124 - 500 ft. wind monsters are just f*!#ing Fine and Dandy in your mind????

I also noticed that like Harold and Janet Radley (both pro wind) and like Mr. Hirschey our town supervisor, Clif also apparently has a wish list of items he would like to get from BP. Of course a wish list comes with a wind farm and the destruction of our community. How about he put that on the table right now so we can determine just how fine and dandy that list is and how many turbines our board will tolerate to get this wish list!!!

Every day the lines are getting more and more blurred in this wind battle as to who is on whose side and that goes all the way up the local and State political food chain. Maybe that is what Janet and Harold are finally figuring out all of a sudden about our town board. They and some members of our board are all of a sudden nicely on the same ground wanting wish lists in exchange for BP’s terminal destruction of our community. How convenient. And I predict by the end if Hirschey and this board keep it up you won’t be able to tell the difference. We will be up to our freakin eyeballs in wish lists and BP wind turbines.

And there is another little inconvenient truth. As a town official if you are toying with a wish list, then what the hell ever happened to the idea of stopping BP by not giving them a PILOT agreement. Seems to me…NO PILOT and that makes BP go away…then no need for a wish list right? I thought the strategy was that this town would NEVER give BP a PILOT? You see…we have all been led to believe no matter what happened in Art X to our community, it didn’t really matter because the board would kill it with NO PILOT for BP. But now there is this absurd wish list disconnect. Well if you are talking wish list…then you are talking wind farms…and if you are talking wish lists and wind farms you are talking PILOT agreements to make BP’s wind farm happen and also get your wish list.

You engineer the right people in the right places and nice slowly just rub the communities belly and put them to sleep so they don’t object or cause any trouble to the agenda. It all has to be very carefully and artfully controlled. It has to appear it is something it is not, and it has to convince everybody it is something it is not. It was very important to get the badly wind conflicted former town officials out of the way…but not for the reasons you have been led to believe.

I mean how can we object right? We elected these people to office right, and they assured us it would all be ok right? The State in ways you probably will never figure out has its finger prints all over CV. And it ain’t just Aubertine’s finger prints which is only the obvious.

The deal has probably already but cut. Obediently going through the motions of Art X just makes it look all so legitimate and respectable. It also provides a nice cover of hopelessness to the community that there is nothing else we can do so start making an attractive wish list the community can start to bend its mind around! Something that will make EVERYBODY in the community happy and feel represented. Gee kinda like just like Harold Wiley and Janet Radley are suggesting…let’s make everybody happy with BP’s destruction of the community!

Just like in the Wizard Of Oz..” Don’t pay any attention to those "men behind the curtain!”

You Don't Defend Your Community By Letting BP Buy Off Your Comp Plan and Zoning For a "Wish List"!!!!

Back from another Mojave Desert 3 week adventure. Love being retired and traveling especially exploring the remote corners of the desert SW. As a result cell and data connections are limited so I am out of touch on the latest wind issues in Cape Vincent at times. But I did note at one point a video on the blog Pandora’s Box of Rocks and the comments that were disturbing.

The video showed an exchange between Janet Radley, who is pro wind, and Cape Vincent officials. She was suggesting that the town should be putting together a “wish list” of what they want to get from BP. She also indicated that no one liked the Article X process. I find that hard to believe from her side of the issue.

But what was more disturbing to me were the comments of our town supervisor Mr. Hirschey. He assured Ms. Radley that he understood and “when” (not if ) that time comes he and the board will very definitely have a wish list of what they want to get from BP.

So from the election of these town officers that was supposed to be an absolute anti- wind victory and referendum against industrial wind development in Cape Vincent (at least as the other CV blogs portrayed it) to now, where we are entertaining a wish list of what we want to get from BP. Anyone see a problem here in attitude and thinking? Of course there is that pesky little problem in that if you get what is on your wish list you also get a massive community destructive wind farm from one of the world’s most irresponsible energy giants. Now in any rational mind one should recognize that any wish list the town could conjure up will always pale in comparison to what will happen to our community.

There isn’t even a point to a wish list. You allow the destruction of a community and region to get the wish list, so what on the wish list makes a destroyed community better after that…what is the point?

So now we are talking trade offs and deals. So Mr. Hirschey and town board, what is the destruction of our town and the regional scenic and environmental resources worth to you? You have apparently put some thought into what our community represents as a bargaining chip. So what is the violation of our community rights by Article X and BP and destruction of our comp plan and zoning worth to you? What’s the bottom line here to buy you off enough to make you feel better? I would like to know and I think the community would like to know. In my opinion there in NO wish list or buy offs that makes it acceptable for what will happen or what the State and BP are doing to us. It is absurd. And by the way these were questions I was asking before the elections and no one would answer, and now here we are considering bargains.

Michelle Oswald our newest board member ran on a no wind platform. Is she going to sit still for this nonsense and not speak up, or was that another wasted vote?

This wish list thinking is real scary crap! The scary part is that anybody would even think in such twisted terms of rather than fighting all out for our regional environment and rights that there could even be a wish list or a buy off of our community and unique treasured scenic and environmental resources that could be acceptable or make it right. Have these people lost their freakin minds???!!! Especially after what BP has already done to this community over recent years.

It might be well advised for our board to remember that a pay back for getting really screwed is what the oldest profession in the world is based on. I’m not sure that is the appropriate thinking or actions we should be engaging in to gloss over the potential destruction of community and our treasured scenic resources.

For God’s sake get your damn heads screwed on straight…our community and region are not bargaining chips and should not be up for barter.

To even enter into that thinking is obscene!!!

Oh The HORRORS of Art X! - Beware! (but don't really piss off the State)

I have to say this...even though I disagree with Wiley at times at the Cape Vincent blog JLL I must say he does have a lot of "FLAIR"  To Rick's credit it is my understanding that he was once involved in theater and if so that background shows.

Here is the title of his latest post.

"Cape Vincent Public Officials Recognize the Horrors of Art X and Industrial Wind "

Oh Really!!!  Whoa such theater!  Come on Rick get real!!!

Well how come when I presented them with a resolution TWICE to oppose those Art X HORRORS , just like their own county passed , they refused to pass a similar one.  Oh the horrors of Art X!

If they recognize the HORRORS of Art X, then how come they are going right along with it and playing in the Art X game as participants which validates it, and enables it, and empowers it?  Oh the HORRORS!  If it is so HORRIBLE then why take part in it at all, and instead truly oppose it and deny this HORRIBLE thing into our community.

If Art X and industrial wind are so HORRIBLE then why write a law to APPEASE Art X to look REASONABLE to the HORRIBLE Art X siting board, and why does the resulting law actually ALLOW some of those HORRIBLE industrial wind turbines in Cape Vincent?  Oh the HORRORS!!!

And here is the real hoot.  Dave Lamora and I have been suggesting a unified regional towns opposition to Art X all along.  We even sat down with Supervisor Hirschey and Councilman Byrne, and the town attorney Mark Gebo about this issue of opting out of Art X and passing a community bill of rights to declare our right to enforce our wind zoning. The answer we received was far less then luke warm to the idea of opposing Art X, and getting other towns to join in!!!

I asked John Byrne point blank if he and the board would take the direction we suggested.  The best I could get out of him about the HORRORS of Art X was "well we work as a team and I would have to run it by the other board members."

And as I said after he "ran it by" the other board members the best they could come up with was to refuse the resolution I presented to oppose Art X officially. Basically the EXACT SAME resolution the county passed!   Oh the HORRORS of Art X!!!!

All this appeasement, and gentleness toward Art X has baffled me....well not really.  All this willingness to go along with the State and play by the official State rules and not officially ruffle any political feathers. All this let's play like nice boys and girls. Let's not actually and aggressively and officially be opposed to Art X and industrial wind.  Let's just moratorium and regulate it to death within the "official" regulatory political box so we all look respectable!  Well maybe this is all actually understandable if you consider...

http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20080517/NEWS04/617584592

In the end I guess you really wouldn't want to piss off the State with any REAL opposition to their sacred Art X process and ruffle any political feathers down in Albany, despite the HORRORS of Art X!!!!