LOCATION/TYPE

NEWS HOME

[ exact phrase in "" • results by date ]

[ Google-powered • results by relevance ]


Archive
RSS

Add NWW headlines to your site (click here)

Get weekly updates

WHAT TO DO
when your community is targeted

RSS

RSS feeds and more

Keep Wind Watch online and independent!

Donate via Paypal

Donate via Stripe

Selected Documents

All Documents

Research Links

Alerts

Press Releases

FAQs

Campaign Material

Photos & Graphics

Videos

Allied Groups

Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005.

News Watch Home

Group files appeal to nullify wind farm approval 

WELLSBORO – The Tioga Preservation Group has filed an appeal in Tioga County Court to try to block plans to construct a wind farm with more than 120 turbines on Armenia Mountain starting in the spring.

The appeal was filed by the group Jan. 17, asking that the judge “nullify” the preliminary conditional approval granted to AES Armenia Mountain Wind LLC, by the Tioga County Planning Commission Dec. 12, group member Frank Piccolella said.

Piccolella, a Lycoming County resident who formed the group with several other landowners in Tioga County, said his property adjoins the Tioga County line near Liberty and though he would not be directly affected by the wind farm, the Laurel Ridge project proposed by Catamount Energy project that is still tied up at the state court level, “would be right across the street from me,” he said.

So far, the court has not set a date for the case to be heard, he added.

“The preliminary conditional approval granted by the Planning Commission does not give them the right to start construction,” he said. “They still have to get several permits.”

The only permits that AES has obtained, he said, are those involving telecommunications and lighting for the Federal Aviation Administration and they have agreed to decommissioning the turbines and removing them at the end of their usable life, Piccolella said.

“The way our attorney explained it is AES has to follow the subdivision ordinance to the letter and Jim Weaver (Tioga County Planner) doesn’t have the authority to say they can only partly follow it,” he said.

According to the subdivision ordinance, he said, any commercial or industrial use construction that abuts private property has to be screened from view, he said “but they can’t screen a 400 foot tower from view,“ he said, “but the subdivision must still be followed to the letter.”

Gov. Ed Rendell has mandated that a percentage of energy generated in Pennsylvania must come from renewable energy sources by the next decade, but “that doesn’t mean we have to do it in Tioga County. He just said you have to come up with a percentage of energy from renewable sources state wide,” Piccolella said.

“On the federal level they did away with that mandate a couple months ago because it is not attainable, I am wondering if they will do the same on the state level,” he said.

“You’d have to put them on every hilltop in Pennsylvania to attain that,” he added.

Though AES cannot start construction at the site with the preliminary conditional approval, it can survey the site, and according to a neighbor whose property adjoins the project site, “they are up there doing that, and they can continue working on getting their permits.”

AES project engineer Bob White declined to comment on ongoing litigation.

Tioga County Planner Jim Weaver could not be reached for comment Friday.

By Cheryl R. Clarke

Williamsport Sun-Gazette

26 January 2008

This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.

Wind Watch relies entirely
on User Funding
   Donate via Paypal
(via Paypal)
Donate via Stripe
(via Stripe)

Share:

e-mail X FB LI TG TG Share


News Watch Home

Get the Facts
CONTACT DONATE PRIVACY ABOUT SEARCH
© National Wind Watch, Inc.
Use of copyrighted material adheres to Fair Use.
"Wind Watch" is a registered trademark.

 Follow:

Wind Watch on X Wind Watch on Facebook

Wind Watch on Linked In Wind Watch on Mastodon