October 27, 2007
New York
New York
More than a dozen towns along the rooftop of New York State, from Jefferson County to Clinton County, are caught up in a “wind rush”.
Big corporations from Spain, Portugal, England, and the United States are scrambling to take advantage of federal “green” energy tax credits before they expire.
The wind farms offer several million dollars in land contracts and property taxes to struggling rural communities. But in doing so, they stir up deep resentment between people who stand to gain from them, and people who don’t, but still have to look at and listen to giant windmills spinning 24 hours a day.
The task of regulating this new industry falls to each local town council.
In part two of a series on the latest wind power developments in the North Country, David Sommerstein reports local lawmakers can end up over their heads in politics, science, and money.
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24 October 2007
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2007/10/27/local-boards-grapple-with-the-wind/