Bio Fuel, Bio Diesel and New Energy Information

Bio Clean Fuel A small but vocal band of preservationists is tilting at windmills here in this town of 1,270. High-tech, 400-foot-tall wind towers, to be precise. The kind with 100-foot-high blades that cost $1 million apiece. With the encouragement of New York State, an entrepreneur wants to put as many as 27 windmills on a 1,900-foot-high ridge that is visible for miles.

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Earth Bio Fuel Environmentalists might be expected to celebrate the scheme. If constructed, the Cherry Valley turbines could produce pollution-free, wind-generated electricity that, its proponents say, would help relieve power shortages and foster energy independence from Arab oil.

Bio Flight Fuel Green Jb100 And this cash-starved town should be jubilant at the arrival of a new industry. On Aug. 20, Gov. George E. Pataki announced that the Cherry Valley project would receive $2.5 million in state start-up funds, as part of a $17 million grant to develop 315 megawatts of electrical power at five wind farms in upstate New York.

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Bio Bio Fuel Less More Waste "Clean energy technologies like wind farms will help New York State and the nation accommodate the growing demand for electricity," the governor said, "in an environmentally responsible manner that avoids air pollution."

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Make Bio Fuel But the windmills are hardly welcome everywhere in Cherry Valley. "This is green power on the surface, but when you scratch it, it's black underneath," said Roberta O'Neill Kieler, a Cherry Valley resident.

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Bio Fuel Jb100 Jet Properties The newest manifestation of Nimby, or not in my backyard, requires a different acronym: not in my viewshed. Wind-farm opponents contend that, like a watershed, a viewshed, or public view, is the common property of those who share it, and must not be degraded unilaterally by any one property owner.

Fuel Cell Bio The Cherry Valley windmills would be visible for miles in several local communities, and near Cooperstown from the Hyde Bay section of Otsego Lake, the model for the Glimmerglass of the James Fenimore Cooper novels.

Bio Conversion Fuel Henry Cooper, a great-great-grandson of the writer, is president of Otsego 2000, a planning and historic preservation organization in Cooperstown next door.

Green Energy "James Fenimore Cooper developed his strong feeling toward nature in this very landscape, at this very lake," he said. "This landscape is a historic source of modern American views of conservation and the environment. It would be ironic if a place that is deeply associated with our whole view of nature is now to be overrun."

Bio Ethanol Fuel Windmills have been tilted at before. A proposal to place a wind farm in the middle of Nantucket Sound has raised the ire of Cape Cod homeowners, yachting groups and fishermen. And a proposal to put wind turbines near Montauk Point on Long Island was halted after residents claimed that they would spoil the view.

Bio Clean Fuel In the Cherry Valley area, environmentalists have had to do much soul-searching in opposing the towers. "I am absolutely committed to wind power," said Paula DiPerna, a board member of Otsego 2000. But Ms. DiPerna, who worked for the environmentalist Jacques-Yves Cousteau for 18 years, paraphrased her onetime boss when she said, "Do we want to live in a world where everything is spoiled just a little bit?"

Earth Bio Fuel Robert Loucks, the Cherry Valley town supervisor, is thinking of the money the wind turbines would bring. "We all use electric power, but a lot of people don't want it produced in their neighborhood," he said. "It is a selfish view to say that `I support wind power if I don't have to look at where it comes from.' "

Bio Flight Fuel Green Jb100 A wind-prospecting company, Global Winds Harvest, has signed contracts with Cherry Valley landowners on a ridge called Cape Wykoff. The company hopes to build up to 27 wind towers producing as much as 40.5 megawatts, generating enough electricity for 13,500 households. The total cost would be $30 million to $35 million, including the construction of a power substation.

Bio Bio Fuel Less More Waste Global Winds Harvest is a three-year-old American offshoot of a German wind-power firm that has installed about 300 towers in Europe. The company is involved in 10 other United States projects, none of which are up and running yet.

Make Bio Fuel Jeff M. Peterson, program manager of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority in Albany, said that New York's wind-power push began three years ago, when the state set about "trying to develop a competitive utility marketplace, while trying to encourage companies to develop renewable energy resources."

Bio Fuel Jb100 Jet Properties Last year, Governor Pataki signed an executive order that set a goal for the state to supply 10 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2005.

Fuel Cell Bio Since 1999, Mr. Peterson's agency has provided $596,203 in seed money to six companies that are prospecting for wind sites, and an additional $7 million to build two wind farms. Generally, wind prospectors sell the completed project to power companies and other operators, then move on.

Bio Conversion Fuel Green power has already come to the town of Madison, site of the first wind farm in the state, which is 48 miles west of Cherry Valley. The seven wind towers there generate 11.5 megawatts of electricity. Another 23 turbines are in Fenner, 18 miles northwest of Madison, generating 30 megawatts in the largest wind farm on the East Coast.

Green Energy Under New York State law, wind and solar power qualify for a tax exemption to encourage new development, so wind prospectors negotiate in-lieu payments to local boards. The company initially offered Cherry Valley $2,500 for each of the 50 turbines it originally hoped to build. (Each landowner was also offered $2,500 per tower.)

Bio Ethanol Fuel Since the project has been scaled down from 50 to 27 or fewer, "the amount is still being negotiated," said Erich Bachmeyer, project manager for Global Winds Harvest.

Bio Clean Fuel Mr. Loucks said that the greatest benefit of the money would be to improve the town's 45 miles of road, 35 miles of which are unpaved.

Earth Bio Fuel "As supervisor, I have to come up with new tax ideas," Mr. Loucks said.

Bio Flight Fuel Green Jb100 Though wind power would not bring the town many jobs, several people would be paid to maintain the towers, Mr. Bachmeyer said. Regionally, the economic situation is grim and census statistics place Otsego County among the 10 poorest in New York. "I get calls from farmers who want to know if they can site wind turbines on their land," Mr. Peterson said. "That income could mean survival."

Bio Bio Fuel Less More Waste Supporters trumpet the fact that the wind towers create no air, water or heat and therefore do not contribute to global climate change. The green-power mantra is that one megawatt of electricity generated from wind saves 5 pounds of sulfur dioxide, 2 pounds of nitrogen oxide and 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions from equivalent fossil fuel plants.

Make Bio Fuel Despite such green credentials, opposition to the towers is growing in Cherry Valley. "The whole thing seems to be about the bottom line, making money for a private sector company," said Mrs. Kieler, a director of Advocates for Cherry Valley, a group of 130 windmill opponents. Her farmhouse would overlook the wind towers that she opposes.

Bio Fuel Jb100 Jet Properties Most residents said they knew nothing about the wind towers until last spring, when the process was fairly advanced. "There is no sharing of information," Mrs. Kieler said, "and they are being very elusive.

Fuel Cell Bio "Why should we give our commodity wind to the first low-ball bid we receive?"

Bio Conversion Fuel Mr. Loucks said that Global Winds Harvest presented its plans publicly at town board meetings for more than a year, and Mr. Bachmeyer of Global Winds said, "We never hid anything."

Green Energy Some preservationists, including Ms. DiPerna, the board member of Otsego 2000, are disturbed that "the beautiful idea of green energy all comes down to paying the lowest price to the least stringent community to make a profit for private developers."

Bio Ethanol Fuel To which Larry Thompson, proprietor for the last 30 years of Larry's Barber Shop, said: "America was built on entrepreneurship and capitalism. I think there is plenty of room for another business to come into Cherry Valley."

Bio Clean Fuel Adding much confusion to the debate, many residents said they believe that the power from the windmills would flow directly to Cherry Valley. But the electricity will go into the grid of the New York State power pool. It would be too expensive to put up a separate network of new power lines to Cherry Valley homes just to deliver wind-power electrons to their homes, Mr. Bachmeyer said.

Earth Bio Fuel Opponents say the windmills make too much noise, can fling ice in winter and are dangerous to migrating birds. Supporters say these complaints are exaggerated.

Bio Flight Fuel Green Jb100 But though the opponents also reject the towers' required nighttime airplane warning strobes and red lights, the primary objection is the daytime visual impact of the 27 windmills.

Bio Bio Fuel Less More Waste "The 19th-century landscape we value would become an industrialized landscape," Ms. DiPerna said.

Make Bio Fuel Mr. Bachmeyer countered, "A lot of people say the towers are beautiful, they look like works of art."

Bio Fuel Jb100 Jet Properties He added, "Right now there are radio towers and cell towers on the hills around Cherry Valley, and I think those are uglier."

Fuel Cell Bio Andy Minnig, a retired schoolteacher whose property faces an alternative Cherry Valley wind-turbine site, acknowledged that the towers "may be sculptural in small groups."

Bio Conversion Fuel But, he added, "Once the towers dominate the features of the landscape, they are objectionable."

Green Energy And opponents worry that future residents may be stuck with the towers forever, since they question the fundamental economics of wind power. According to energy analysts, electricity generated from wind power costs 1 to 2 cents per kilowatt hour more than the wholesale average cost of 3.5 cents from fossil fuels. Wind-power advocates are hoping to create "green energy" initiatives where environmentally minded consumers can pay slightly more on their utility bills for the privilege of using wind-generated electrons in their toaster ovens.

Bio Ethanol Fuel Mr. Bachmeyer said the towers should recoup their investment during 20 years of operation.

Bio Clean Fuel But opponents say the entrepreneurs do not have to post any bond for the wind towers' removal. So, Mrs. Kieler said, "We worry that we could be left with a hill of rusting hulks."

Earth Bio Fuel Mr. Bachmeyer said that even in case of a bankruptcy, the towers' electricity would have value and they would continue operating. Furthermore, he said the cost of wind-power electricity "is much cheaper than conventional energy when you consider its health costs, the costs of environmental degradation and climate change, and the military cost of protecting offshore power resources."

Bio Flight Fuel Green Jb100 There is an urgency on the part of wind prospectors to get projects up and running, because a government subsidy a 1.8-cent-per-kilowatt-hour production tax credit that helps makes wind-tower operation profitable expires at the end of 2003.

Bio Bio Fuel Less More Waste Yet at the same time, Cherry Valley opponents are pressing for a moratorium. If they fail, the next step would likely be a public hearing in mid-September, to be followed by a vote, and conceivably a robust round of lawsuits.

Make Bio Fuel Meanwhile, the resident-vs.-outsider debate in Cherry Valley has been intensifying. "Most of the people who live in our town year-round aren't against it," Mr. Loucks said, adding that a lot of the tower opponents live in New York City.

Bio Fuel Jb100 Jet Properties One of them, Patrick Shearer, a 76-year-old retired manager for the ABC television network who lives in Manhattan, bought 65 acres on a Cherry Valley hilltop a decade ago. "I think the towers would make my property worthless," he said.

Fuel Cell Bio He sighed. "To see these giant towers near your house it would be like driving through oil derricks to get to your front door."

Bio Conversion Fuel By Glenn Collins
New York Times - 8/28/2002

Topic: Energy

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