November 4, 2015
Letters, New York

Apex leaseholders are turning on their neighbors

Lockport Union-Sun & Journal | November 4, 2015 | www.lockportjournal.com

Newfane. Yes, the new target of Apex Clean Energy’s 600-foot-tall turbine monstrosities is now Newfane. It is not surprising that a massive, multinational wind energy conglomerate continues to force an unwanted project down the throats of the vast majority of area residents. After all, why would Apex care? They pay off a few landowners, erect their monstrosities, sell those monstrosities and leave the vast majority of the residents with nothing but a massive reduction in quality of life.

Apex and the robber-baron leaseholders may challenge the phrase “vast majority.” However, there is objective evidence that the “vast majority” of residents oppose Apex’s Lighthouse Wind industrial wind turbine emplacement project. Numerous surveys of area residents clearly gauge the level of opposition to this project, including:

• A Town of Somerset survey that showed 64 percent of Somerset residents are opposed to the Apex project.

• A Save Ontario Shores, Inc., survey that showed 77.9 percent of Yates residents are opposed to the Apex project.

• A Batavia Daily News survey that showed 77 percent of all respondents are opposed to the Apex project.

In addition, the Union-Sun & Journal published an opinion in its Oct. 29 edition that seems to oppose the project.

The mountain of opposition continues to grow aggressively, but Apex and the leaseholders don’t seem to see or care about the views of the majority. Specifically, the leaseholders do not seem to care very much about the neighbors, friends and family members they will be impacting with their greed-driven decisions. These are lifetime relationships that leaseholders are willing to throw away like so many rotten apples at the end of a harvest season. Are these leaseholders so enamored of their potential new wealth that they are willing to redeem that wealth for the sake of the friends’, families’ and neighbors’ quality of life?

Interestingly, Apex and the leaseholders are now resorting to dirty tricks in their untruthful, Don Quixote-like efforts to gain support for the project. It has come to the attention of SOS members that a Yates leaseholder (who is a business owner) has cobbled together an untruthful “document” and is using it to attempt to discredit SOS as “anti-farmer.” This truth-less document has been debunked and the guilty gentleman will be required, by SOS, to cease and desist. Such seeming commitment to the wind turbine project must derive from a clear desire to live amongst the turbines?!

It has also come to the attention of SOS members and alliances that a major leaseholder in Somerset has negotiated riders in their lease contract with Apex which guarantees the leaseholder that turbine placement will be out of their line of sight (when in and around their home). In addition, this same leaseholder has also negotiated with Apex to ensure that any turbines placed near their home will be of the “smaller variety.” ( Now, we know why they don’t want you to discuss your lease details – not all may be created equal! )

This type of leaseholder behavior seems to indicate that they do not, in fact, want to live amongst the turbines. This is strange behavior for folks so enamored with Apex’s monstrosities. In fact, they seem to only want to be close enough to get their money, but will surround their friends, neighbors and families with 600-foot-tall turbines. It is a tragedy that those friends, neighbors and families have no say in the leaseholder’s decisions. This is one of the many reasons why Save Ontario Shores, Inc., and the vast majority of residents are fighting Apex and the leaseholders.

The specter of feudal England looms in Somerset, Yates … and now Newfane.

Tanis C. Bolick

Lyndonville

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2015/11/04/apex-leaseholders-are-turning-on-their-neighbors/