The story is the same, no matter where you go.
The story that is unfolding in our backyard is the same story that is playing out around the world.
This youtube video is about the industrial renewable energy projects that are being built in Australia. It may be half a world away, but their plight is very much the same as ours.
Their story will seem very familiar. It is well worth the time to watch.
Fact vs. Fiction
The Environment
Myth #1: New York's Renewable Energy Plan Protects the Environment
Reality: The pursuit of large-scale wind projects under New York's current climate plan won’t resolve the pressing climate crisis we face. Instead, this flawed strategy will lead to a significant uptick in fossil fuel reliance while jeopardizing over a million acres of vital farmland and scenic open spaces that are crucial to our ecosystem, agriculture, and way of life.
The Economy
Myth #2: Solar and Wind Projects Support Local Communities and Economic Growth
Reality: The truth is that relying on intermittent renewable energy sources such as wind and solar can result in elevated electricity costs and increased vulnerability to blackouts for both residents and local businesses. Additionally, the state’s policy changes have led to declines in property values for areas hosting renewable projects, stripping local governments of essential tax income that could otherwise support schools, infrastructure, and community services.transportation.
Jobs
Myth #3: Renewable Energy Initiatives Create Local Job Opportunities
Reality: It is unacceptable that contracts for large-scale renewable energy projects are frequently awarded to companies outside New York or to foreign entities. This practice drains billions from our local economy and perpetuates social injustice. Workers installing foreign-made wind turbines deserve fair compensation, yet they often earn less than skilled American workers in similar roles. This compensation disparity needs urgent attention.
Local Input
Myth #4: Local Towns Have “Home Rule”
Reality: The Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES) has the authority to override local zoning laws and regulations, effectively weakening the Home Rule protections that our state constitution promises. This blatant disregard for local governance undermines community input and the ability of towns to decide what is best for their own areas.
Conclusion: It's Time to Speak Up!
We can no longer remain passive while our government silences the voices of residents and prioritizes corporate profits over the well-being of our communities. This is stark greenwashing—an attempt to mislead us about the true impact of these initiatives.
APFL is a stanch coalition committed to battling against the alarming increase of Wind Farms in Scipio and Venice and the rest of the Finger Lakes.
Join Us
Together, we can protect the cherished landscapes and communities of rural New York for future generations!
Ready to Take a Stand?
Join our Facebook group, Alliance to Preserve the Finger Lakes, a platform for sharing information, discussing strategies, and mobilizing action.
Let's Talk Money.....
The Painful Economics of Wind, Solar, and Battery Systems
by Michael Dee, Silver Creek NY
The painful economics of Wind, Solar, and Battery Systems
Do NYS citizens understand why Wind, Solar, and Battery installations are being
shoved down our throats? Are they even aware of the deceptively named Climate
Leadership and Community Protection Act of 2019 (CLCPA) that mandates impossible Net-Zero electricity generation by 2040? Do people in government even understand
the ramifications of Net Zero policies?
Even if the entire US achieved Net-Zero (which cannot be done), our effects on climate would be meaningless because the biggest CO2 emitters, along with the rapidly developing Third World, have absolutely rejected both the Net-Zero scam and the Climate Catastrophe scam. This was made clear by Last year's Kazan Declaration.
The only reason for building Battery Farms is to provide backup for Wind and Solar Farms, both of which are exactly the wrong technologies for providing our baseload electrical power because of their inherent intermittency. The Germans named this problem "Dunkelflaute" after they learned the hard way. It implies: "No wind and no sun
equals no electricity." Hence we would need incredible and unrealistic quantities of Battery backup to make Wind and Solar work.
Wind and Solar are already our most expensive sources of electricity based on what NYS law forces us to pay for it. NYS Strike Prices for Wind and Solar are 2-4 times higher than the market prices for electricity generated by Natural Gas, Nuclear, Coal, Oil, or Hydro. And that is after massive subsidies have already been lavished on the producers of Wind and Solar power.
For example, the projected Strike Price for Offshore Wind power is over $160/MWH, versus about $40/MWH (or less) for conventional generation. But beware - these prices do not include the additional costs of upgrading transmission systems and battery
storage systems, like what is being proposed here today. It makes no sense for NYS to quadruple our own energy costs. Who benefits? Wall St.?
A vote for Battery Farms will add both Battery and Transmission costs to our bills, above and beyond the astronomical Strike Prices we already pay for Wind and Solar power. Did anyone notice the rate increases requested by the utilities last week?
Now consider what will happen when NYS Law (CLCPA) has finally eliminated fossil fuels and nuclear power from NYS. Last year NYS generated a paltry 8% of our electrical energy from Wind and Solar, even after all the subsidies we lavished on it.
To achieve Net Zero by 2040 would require 20-30 times more Wind and Solar
infrastructure than we now have, and at least 200 times more Battery Storage. To
make it all work, we will need to cover NYS with Wind, Solar, and Battery farms. These numbers may double when NYS requires EVs, eliminates Natural Gas, and power hungry AI comes on line.
Historical data shows that Dunkelflaute periods of up to 5 days will be common, wherein we will need battery storage to supply 80% of our energy if we rely on Wind and Solar power for Baseload.
Recent estimates show that it will cost at least $3.6 Trillion every 10 years - out of our pockets - to maintain sufficient battery storage to support Wind and Solar power. But Battery backup will require that we nearly double (again) our total Wind and Solar infrastructure just to keep Battery Farms charged to prevent catastrophic blackouts.
The reality is simple: Wind, Solar, and Battery farms cannot possibly provide even a fraction our future energy needs, or ever achieve the meaningless Net-Zero mandates of CLCPA. For example, England and Germany have already crippled their economies with their Net-Zero delusions, and are now paying the price.
Other countries (Sweden, Poland, Norway, Italy, China, India, Russia) have recently rejected adding more Wind, Solar, and Battery power, and have moved toward Nuclear futures. They understand the disastrous consequences of an electrical grid based on Wind, Solar, and Batteries.
Over 40 companies in the US are now contracting to build private Nuclear installations to protect themselves from the impending Wind, Solar, and Battery disaster. For
example, Bill Gates just spent Hundreds of $Millions to bring Three Mile Island Nuclear back on line just for his AI servers.
Citizens should beware that payments to localities in return for siting rights are not
friendly gifts to the people. Such payments come from our future electric bills, and are a license for Wind, Solar, and Battery Farms to continuously pick our pockets in the future. They will gladly sucker us with a crumb or two from their tables today, so they can gobble up huge profits paid by us tomorrow.
Please don't be fooled by promises of how many jobs will be created. Germany is the world leader in Green Energy, and also the biggest job loser. They were promised 500,000 new Green Jobs and a vibrant clean energy economy. In reality, Germany lost hundreds of thousands of jobs overall, and saw entire industries shut down in pursuit of
the Net-Zero delusion. Politicians might want to pay attention to recent German
mandates.
Even before losing Natural Gas from Russia in 2022, Germany had to re-commission (in 2021) over 20 coal-fired plants and buy Nuclear power from France to survive. Still, Volkswagen had to shut down 2 entire factories because of the high costs of wind, solar, and battery farms, Many companies continue to leave Germany altogether because of energy costs. England may be even worse-off.
A lesson in Economics: So-called Green Jobs will always kill real jobs simply because Green Energy is the most economically inefficient power source available, and its high cost causes ripple effects downstream. A couple unions might prosper off the backs of taxpayers by building subsidized Wind, Solar, and Battery infrastructure, but everyone
else loses . Ask the Germans.
Keep in mind also that Net-Zero electricity production is NOT sustainable, in spite of the popular narrative. Wind, Solar, and Battery infrastructure must be totally replaced on a 10-20 year basis, at massive expense to rate-payers.
You might also ask the makers of Wind, Solar, and Battery farms if they can build their equipment from materials that are mined, processed, manufactured, and installed using only Wind and Solar power, with no carbon footprint. Ask why we do not see EV Trucks delivering
neither attainable nor sustainable.
Because of the short life of Wind, Solar, and Battery infrastructure, our children will be left holding the bag for removing and replacing dead Wind, Solar, and Battery infrastructure. Where will we dump all the non-recyclable and often toxic waste from expended Wind, Solar, and Battery installations?
A vote in favor of any aspect of Wind, Solar, and Battery infrastructure is a vote to further de-industrialize NYS, rip off tax payers and consumers, and encourage even more people to leave while clueless politicians chase Green Unicorns.
Will the last Green Supporter please turn out the lights? Never mind. Your won't have to.
It's Time To Bring Back Common Sense
A PRESS RELEASE FROM OUR FRIENDS AT "STOP ENERGY SPRAWL"
ATTENTION NEW YORKERS: IT'S TIME TO UNCOVER THE TRUTH
For Immediate Release: September 5, 2024
Contact: Steve Helmin, 518-339-2400, StopEnergySprawl@gmail.com Brian Wilson, 315-314-0164, info@nyenergyalliance.org Eric Dawson, 202-746-5108, eric@nuclearny.org Keith Schue, 407-470-9433, keithschue@gmail.com
New Yorkers call for a sensible energy plan
Syracuse, New York – As policymakers convene an energy summit in Syracuse on how to salvage climate legislation, community leaders join with energy experts, business, and labor in calling for sensibility.
At issue is the 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), signed into law by former Governor Andrew Cuomo. Recently, the New York State Energy Research & Development Authority (NYSERDA) reported that the Act’s 2030 goal of meeting 70% of electricity with renewables will not be met. This follows increasingly dire warnings by the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) of reliability problems and blackouts in trying to replace dispatchable fossil fuel power plants with intermittent solar and wind. Meanwhile, communities across New York are objecting to the heavy hand of government forcing them to sacrifice farmland and forest for sprawling energy projects that will not solve the problem. With disaster on the horizon, over sixty business groups and labor unions penned a letter urging the Governor to chart a different course.
“In the past five years, we haven’t had climate leadership or community protection,” said Steve Helmin of Stop Energy Sprawl, a coalition of more than 40 community organizations and municipal officials across New York. “So it’s good to see the state finally considering other options.”
In its report, NYSERDA identified a slew of reasons for failure—from supply chains, to infrastructure, to inflation. According to the state Comptroller, poor planning and bad data are to blame. But for those who understand energy generation and delivery, it comes as no surprise.
“The problem is that New York has been pursuing a lopsided strategy that relies on massive amounts of underperforming, intermittent technology,” said Greg Sacco, Sr., a 35-year veteran operator of the electric grid. “In terms of land, materials, and infrastructure, it is the most intensive, complex, and inefficient approach imaginable. Factoring in system-level costs of storage, transmission, and backup power, it is also the most expensive.”
In fact, since 2019, New York has lost ground, burning more fossil fuels for electricity today than before the CLCPA became law.
“Upstate has been generating reliable carbon-free energy for decades thanks to baseload hydropower and nuclear power. Yet following the closure of downstate nuclear, New York City is dependent on gas for nearly all of its electricity,” said Keith Schue with New York Energy & Climate Advocates. “If the state hopes to shut down fossil fuel power plants, it must learn from past mistakes.”
The headstrong pursuit of flawed policy has also stripped communities of their rights. To promote sprawling industrial-scale solar and wind projects, the New York Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES) has overridden local laws, bypassed the State Environmental Quality Review Act, and limited public input. Recently, those powers were expanded to approve transmission lines that could sit idle much of the time, while authorizing eminent domain to take private land that stands in the way.
“Home rule has literally been tossed to the wind,” said Kimberly Scannell, Planning Commissioner for the Town of Rotterdam. “New York needs an energy system that produces reliable electricity where the demand is, not a tangled web of extension cords.
Last year the state even mandated a lowball appraisal methodology for solar and wind projects that slashed tax revenue to municipalities by up to 80%.
"It’s been a gift to out-of-state energy companies at the expense of disadvantaged rural communities,” said Don Airey, Blenheim Town Supervisor and Energy Committee chair for the Schoharie County Board of Supervisors. “Local governments and school districts can no longer collect fair tax revenue for the projects they are forced to host. How is that environmental justice?”
Without a policy shift, ratepayers will pay dearly too. After renewable developers threatened to abandon projects, NYSERDA began awarding “strike price” guarantees as high as $150 per megawatt-hour, several times the cost of electricity on the market today. Meanwhile utilities are having to front the cost of infrastructure for a Rube Goldberg grid that requires too many parts.
Despite their grievances, communities suffering under the CLCPA share the hope of energy experts, business, and labor that the summit in Syracuse offers the chance for a brighter future.
“This could be a turning point,” said Brian Wilson of New York Energy Alliance. “If New York is serious about growing its economy with in-state manufacturing, supporting data centers of the future, and supplying the electricity that heat pumps and electric vehicles require, it will need abundant, reliable energy.”
“Nobody disputes that renewables have a role to play,” added Dietmar Detering of Nuclear New York. “However, if New York hopes to fight climate change while generating ample energy to support a vibrant economy, it needs an inclusive plan that does not discriminate against compact, carbon-free solutions.
“Labor knows that good jobs are not in unpacking solar panels from China,” said Greg Harkenrider, Vice-President of Stop Energy Sprawl. “It’s time to invest in robust, dependable technology made in America.”
Yet while those concerned are grateful for the summit scheduled on September 5th, they are also aware that some are urging the state to double-down on a failing strategy.
“That would be a big mistake,” responded Ginger Schroder, labor attorney and Cattaraugus County legislator. “Ideological hubris is what led to the energy disaster our state now faces. Rather than throwing good money after bad, New York needs a plan that can produce clean energy without stomping on communities, destroying rural land and economies, and undermining the state’s future.”
“Policymakers need to set ideology aside, bring experts to the table who understand how the grid works, and perform a credible assessment of feasibility, impacts, and cost,” concluded Helmin. “Only then can New York develop a realistic energy plan employing a diverse set of resources that will protect nature, respect communities, and effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”