T. Urling and Mabel Walker of Watertown and Cape Vincent are among 20 north country residents named in a 94-person antitrust complaint against the wind industry.
The complaint – submitted Wednesday via e-mail to the U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust division – alleges that a number of foreign and domestic companies “have conspired to eliminate competition in the newly emerging wind energy industry.” It claims that, through alliances and cross-ownership, the alleged “international cartel” is avoiding competition for potential wind farm sites, reducing benefits to landowners and municipalities, and that “virtually all of the earnings are funneled abroad to the foreign owners and investors.”
Babcock and Brown of Australia, UPC Group of Companies in Europe, Clipper Windpower of England and General Electric are listed as “prime players.” However, Horizon Wind Energy of Houston, Texas, and PPM Energy of Portland, Oregon – the partnering firms in the Maple Ridge Wind Farm in Lewis County – are also mentioned as involved companies in the 22-page complaint.
Other local complainants are Thomas and Joyce Gormel, Sarah Boss, Dr. Charles Moehs, Alan and Jennifer Vail, William and Mary Ellen Volzer and Ellen and Charles Jury, all of Cape Vincent; Timothy Yancey, Jeffrey and Pat Beyer, Rick Beyer, John A. Yancey and Gordon Yancey, all of Lowville; Jack Sullivan of Malone and Anne Britton of North Bangor.
The lead complainants are Bradley E. Jones and Linda Strauss Jones of Naples, Ontario County. Some residents of Vermont, Maryland, Arizona and California are also listed.
Publication: Watertown Daily Times (Watertown, NY)
Publication Date: 04/27/2007
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2007/04/27/nny-residents-join-antitrust-complaint-against-wind-industry/