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Make wind tower company pay taxes

Posted 2/23/17

To the Editor: Some thoughts about wind towers: maybe folks should take a drive to one of the existing wind farms and have a look, but don't stop there. If you want to know all about the energy …

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Make wind tower company pay taxes

Posted

To the Editor:

Some thoughts about wind towers: maybe folks should take a drive to one of the existing wind farms and have a look, but don't stop there.

If you want to know all about the energy industry, you've got to look at the alternatives. Look at your history books and read about the many towns that vanished beneath the waters along the St. Lawrence River when they built the Robert Moses Power dam.

Go to the coal country of South-eastern Ohio and see what the term "mountain-top removal" means. Stop by western Pennsylvania, have a whiff of gas fracking country, and see what real road building and tree destruction looks like. I have family in Ohio and Pennsylvania who I suspect would trade for a place next to a wind tower without a second thought.

Lately there have been some frantic letters about the terrible dangers associated with "industrial" wind power development, and I sometimes suspect that this is a smokescreen. Throughout this discussion, I have heard too little about making these companies pay their way.

Sure, the individual landowners get a good chunk of cash and a long-term income that would make most of us quite happy (and the rest of us jealous). The companies make money by the boatload, but the town, the county...and the taxpayers...they get the short end of the stick.

The entire community has to look at these things, and the entire community should see the benefits. Make them pay their taxes like everyone else.

Michael Greer

Potsdam