Publishers Notes: This is about the same one that is trying to put them in Somerset County
Not Pioneer Green Energy. They have halted plans for an industrial wind turbine project on top of scenic Lookout Mountain in northeast Alabama. NextERA has announced wind projects in Jackson and Madison Counties, and others have a project planned in Cleburne County. A proposed wind development in Baldwin County was denied last year, when the county commission obtained clarity from the state legislature through a local bill regarding their ability to regulate such towers under their zoning statute.
Why all this interest in Alabama?
Developers are seeking new territory for energy corporations who are looking to take advantage of lucrative federal subsidies and federal and state tax credits for alternative energy. Alabama is a target, because of a lack of regulation on this type of energy producing industry in unincorporated areas of the state.
When Leesburg resident Shannon Mackey found out about Pioneer Green’s plans to place turbines at Cherokee Rock Village, one of the top 10 rock climbing venues in the country, he began protesting at public meetings and started a Facebook page called Save Cherokee Rock Village with the goal of stopping the project. It currently has over 3,600 followers.
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26 comments:
Liberal Jim and Chairman Norm are all for fast-tracking this waste of money - how long now has the shale study been going on?
our leaders in this area will never see the truth. they are totally blind and clueless...
It's Alabama. Nuff said.
Yet, if the voters turned down a permit to build a Mosque there, Obama would send in Holder and file a DOJ law suite.
Alabama is smart. This company hasn't a proven track record. Don't be such a naïve ignorant fool 8:30. Would you let a surgeon operate on your brain if he's only done brain surgery twice? Oops wrong question for you since it's obvious you don't have a brain!
Now wise up you fool! Raise your standards and expect nothing but excellence out of elected officials. This includes them doing their due diligence when it comes to spending tax payers money and not just shooting from the hip, because some snake oil salesmen talk a good game.
That's the problem with you peons, lack of higher standards.
You must be a democrat too.
Pioneer Green has partnered with James Mathias on this one.
The wind resource in Somerset is poor/marginal. Placing 690' turbines within 4000 feet of people is a dangerous mistake.
Not Green
Not Clean
Not Worth It!
9:34 No one has ever used Alabama and smart in the same sentence.
I guess Alabama felt like it could turn its back on 44 million in tax revenue. Somerset can not! So much misinformation! Great Bay is 100% investor funded ( no subsidies ). The Audubon and the Sierra Club strongly support Great Bay. And their turbines will be less than 600 feet tall.
9:37
Great Bay invested much in research to determine that there is sufficient wind in the area for their purpose and then invested much more in bringing a business to Somerset county. Somehow I strongly doubt that you know more than they do on how much wind is available in Somerset. The FAA has only given them authority to intrude in airspace up to 600 feet so there is no turbine going up at 690 feet.
Great point 3:16. Somerset cannot afford to turn away anything in tax revenue. Furthermore if Somerset drives out a business that has invested so much already based on the speculation and myths the opposition has offered then it is very doubtful any other major business will ever try to enter Somerset.
3:16 obviously works for Great Bay. The whole project is based on subsidies. Both the state mandate and the tax credit are taxpayer subsidies. Great Bay intends to sell the project once complete to someone who can better use the tax credits. They have admitted that they would not go foreward without the tax credit.
There is no guarantee of the 44 million dollar tax revenue. It is the result of a phoney Great Bay fininaced study that was based on 65 turbines not the present 25.
The money Pioneer Green invested was mostly used for buying support and high priced lobbyists like Pamela Kasemeyer. If this was such a boon to the citizens of the county, why did they have to buy support before the program was approved by the county?
Ok. 10 million. 20 million. 30 million. Somerset cannot turn either one of those down.
4:11 How much will county property tax and tourism revenue drop? One million a year? That's 20 million over the 20 years and it's guaranteed.
4:21
Numerous studies have been done that show that there is no drop in property values due to wind turbines. That is a ongoing unsubstantiated, myth that opponents keep throwing out there to try to scare their neighbors into siding with them. I really don't think anyone can name a tourism market in Somerset County that could conceivably suffer a decrease from the turbines. So with no drop in property tax revenue, no drop in tourism revenue and the 10-40 million in economic increase it sounds like a good deal to me.
@3:45 - there is a difference between tax subsidies and credits. Tax credits mean you have to spend money first and make money to take the credit off of your tax return. If you invest in a geothermal system, you get a tax credit - not a subsidy. You have to pay for the unit up front - no taxpayer money is at risk. Huge difference!
I'm 3.16 and actually I do not work for Great Bay. I have lived in Somerset all my life and I am sick and tired of all the lost opportunities because of the no to everything crowd. Get out of Somerset for once and see all the turbines out there. Why should we not have them? One thing all the wind farms have in common ( and I've seen many of them) is a place for people to park and take pictures or just stare. The idea they will kill tourism is just laughable.
5:04 A claim of no property value loss in the vicinity of giant, noisy turbines is absurd. A company willing to pay the lobbiest wife of a Democratic State Senator would certainly be willing to pay for phoney studies.
@5:04 - sadly, for any company to navigate MD's system for getting approval to do business, you have to have a lobbyist. If your point is that a Senator's wife should not be a lobbyist (or prohibited from active lobbying activities in MD), I agree. But to say that a lobbyist isn't needed, is naive. As for property value loss, Berkeley studies indicate no negative impact on property values. There are a dozen or more studies from other institutions in agreement. It doesn't look like properties around the Lewes, DE turbine are in jeopardy of decline. Go visit the turbine at Lewes. You will be surprised how quiet it is.
@7:30
I have to ask have you ever even been to a wind turbine? I've never seen one I would classify as noisy. The University or Rhode Island, University of Connecticut, the Journal of Real Estate and the US Dept of energy have all done studies that found no decline in property values as a result of wind turbines. What I find absurd is the theory that somehow Pioneer bought off each of these institutions, the researchers, the statisticians, the Journal editors and the journal reviewers.
@3:45
If 3:16 "obviously" works for Great Bay because they support the wind turbine project does that mean you "obviously" work for the coal industry because you oppose it?
Any money Somerset receives in tax revenues will be offset by the state funding cuts. It has happened in Garrett County.
This is a very bad deal.
Because Somerset officials and James Mathias have repeatedly sold out the county by claiming it is hopelessly poor, this is the hideous solution we get. Somerset is better than this. I am proud of my county and its people. We need to replace our officials. Somerset is a great place to live contrary to what they say.
Somerset is hopelessly poor and as long as it maintains anti business practices it will continue to be so. A sizable percentage of its populous refuse to accept change and will fight it through scare tactics and dishonesty. The State has created many unfunded liabilities and will be forced to cut county funding soon. With a declining fishery industry and a state determined to regulate farming out what will be left in Somerset?
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