Think Again, before your liberties are gone with the wind

It has often been said that the “devil is in the details.” Legal language in the “confidentiality contracts” found in the agreements between Industrial Wind LLCs (Limited Liability Corporations) and landowners is the best example of this age-old axiom.

Landowner leases and “good neighbor agreements” entered into with these multi-million-dollar, multi-national corporations NEED a trusted lawyer’s oversight. Besides the fact that wind industry salesmen have never provided any PROOF to back up all of their false and misleading claims, the hot air contained in the legal mumbo-jumbo within their lease agreements is actually nothing less than the signing away of your First Amendment rights. These legal documents are tied to your property forever, even after the property changes hands. Landowners in Wyoming County ended up with liens on their property when one of the wind developers failed to pay contractors.

Verbiage that should send up the red flag on wind leases for massive industrial-scale turbines on your real estate includes the fact that the landowner allows the wind corporation to “go over, under through and across” leased land — oftentimes for a period of 40 years, with the Big Wind LLC having the right of renewal on those leases. Many believe this also jeopardizes mineral rights of the property under contract.

Another hard-to-decipher clause, usually toward the end of the wind lease contract, states that the Big Wind LLC, at their discretion, can alter any condition of the contract. WOW! Really?!? You might as well just hand the deed over now! Over 40 issues involved with these lease agreements can be further researched here: http://www.wiseenergy.org/Energy/Leaseholder.pdf

“Good neighbor agreements” are confidentiality contracts the Big Wind LLC seeks to have “non-participating neighbors” sign, in which you basically forfeit your rights to address the very grievances that Big Wind swears do not exist — problems that ARE occurring nationwide, and around the world.

The negative impacts include, but are not limited to: Noise/infra-sound, shadow flicker, health impacts, resonant ground vibrations, interruption of TV and cell phone frequencies, interference with ham radio and radar signals, destroyed rural heritage and scenic vistas, negatively-impacted property values (see Michael McCann report, www.GreatLakeswindtruth.org), etc. ...

In fact, residents in Wyoming County are now suing Invenergy due to the resulting problems they are stuck dealing with. In Wisconsin, the Board of Health just dubbed Duke Energy’s Shirley Wind Project a “human health hazard,” because so many people are complaining and even abandoning their homes as a result of resulting problems created by the wind factory. There are currently at least 12 lawsuits going on in as many states due to the ill-effects being created by these giant, sprawling wind factories.

Furthermore, if you sign a lease contract with a Big Wind LLC, a clause states that you will promote the company’s product and not say anything derogatory about it, while also agreeing to hold the wind company harmless. This is equivalent to giving up your rights for free speech — a self-imposed “gag-order”! This is why people who have signed wind-leases can not complain about the negative impacts of wind turbines.

For instance, in Wyoming County — during the 2013 wind factory construction phase, an Orangeville cash-cropper signed leases for wind turbines on properties he owned on the other side of Orangeville which were away from his home farm, that had been in the family for generations. He then decided to lease some of his strawberry fields across the street and down the road from his house on Orangeville Center Road. He did not want any wind turbines on his home-farm, where he lived with his wife and three kids. Because the wind company reserves the right to alter the conditions of the contract at their discretion, and since a neighboring landowner who decided not to sign a “good neighbor agreement” which would have allowed the siting of a turbine near their property, the wind company simply moved the turbine to the farmers home-farm — despite his objections. As a result, the access road then had to be switched to the his home-farm side yard, approximately 75 feet away from his house, continuing west and then running between his barn and maple syrup shanty, and right through his kid’s riding arena.

The now-disgruntled wind-leaseholder then consulted his attorney to terminate the lease. He was informed that this fight would cost millions of dollars, and would be close to impossible to win since he had signed their lease agreements. This farmer and his family now have a beautiful view of about a dozen, 430-foot-tall wind turbines, with their 164-foot-long, 11-TON blades whirring overhead at 200 mph at the blade tips, complete with flashing red strobe lights that drive many crazy — including one directly to their west, obscuring a once-beautiful view. (Mind you, turbines being proposed by Apex are to be 570 feet tall — a full 140 feet taller than the monsters littering Wyoming County!)

Of utmost importance, Michael McCann, a certified real estate appraiser from Chicago, licensed in 25 states, and with 30 years experience in dealing with properties located amongst wind projects has detailed a Property Protection Plan that simply makes sense. I would think that wind developer, Apex “Clean” Energy LLC, would be happy to sign and guarantee property values of landowners if they are sure about their claims that resulting problems caused by wind factories supposedly do not exist. Apex has stated on display boards at their “wind-fo-mercials” in Barker and Yates, that these 570-foot-tall industrial wind turbines placed in and around homes and farms in Niagara and Orleans counties, WILL NOT affect your property values. Thus, Apex should more than happy to sign a Property Protection Plan, drawn up by an independent lawyer of the land-owners’ choosing, in order to protect all involved.

“Caveat emptor” — Let the BUYER BEWARE! Think again before you sign your freedom and property rights away ... As the saying goes, “Decide in haste; repent in leisure.”

To join the many disgruntled homeowners and landowners living within the view of this proposed project working to STOP the known negative impacts the development of this Industrial Wind Factory will create, CONTACT: Save Ontario Skylines (S.O.S.) at: (716) 795-3571, or www.GreatLakesWindTruth.org.

Cathi Orr lives in Somerset.