CWW

At the Cohocton Town Board meeting on 3/18/08 Mr. McAllister a member of this legislature reported to the town that NYS is passing on budget cuts that will probably force the county to raise taxes to its residents.

Cohocton Wind Watch fundamentally opposes federal and state subsidies for industrial wind development. The purpose of this letter is to urge that the Senate reject the Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act.

Cohocton Wind Watch has a national membership of concerned citizens that seek realistic solutions for effective and efficient alternative energy. The original House Stimulus Bill excluded tax credits for industrial wind.  This was the correct and appropriate decision.  Since the signing of the Stimulus Bill by President Bush, the dreadful news that the Democratic leadership in the House will be seeking to pass a wide-ranging, $17.5 billion renewable energy bill has been reported.

For SCIDA to approve this PILOT before the court hears the cases would be injudicious. If Mr. Sherron's assertion is correct (CWW disagrees with his interpretation) that SCIDA can lawfully approve PILOT's after construction has started, there should be no immediate or compelling need to authorize the PILOT for either UPC Prattsburgh or Cohocton Projects, at this time and with tax exemptions purported.

As part of your official duties and responsibilities, your office requires that certification be achieved within the first year of your employment. According to NYS Department of State – Division of Code Enforcement and Administrationhttp://www.dos.state.ny.us/CODE/ls-codes.html you are not listed as having a certified license. The Town Clerk needs to have your certification verification available for inspection.

At some point SCIDA will need to explain why the $4,400,000 per year payment amount in the UPC application for special tax exemption was rejected and a PILOT of minuscule proportions ($37,500 for the Wayland-Cohocton School District as represented by the Town of Cohocton) is ready for approval.

Our group strongly supports local labor and businesses. However, Industrial Wind Turbine Projects with foreign ownership and LLC legal protections are scam ventures. Ex Enron executives are using phony energy REC’s to defraud the NYS taxpayer. SCIDA is about to advance this fraud by granting a PILOT, when the developer clearly stated in their application, that they were willing to pay $4,400,000 per year for tax exemption status.

We now know that there are significant problems with the Clipper 2.5 Liberty turbines which are in the prototype stage only. One needs to ask what turbines are being erected at this time on Dutch Hill. Why would a company intending to produce safe reliable electricity be erecting turbines which do not work?