CITIZEN POWER ALLIANCE

A group of Chemung County residents is preparing to sue the Village of Horseheads, if necessary, to prevent the proposed Schlumberger project from proceeding without an environmental impact statement.

"I'm in discussions with other larger environmental groups to help bring additional legal action if it's required," said Helen Slottje, 42, of Ithaca, the lawyer representing the residents.

Horseheads Mayor Donald Ziegler said he had not yet seen the letter but had heard about it. He declined to comment on the matter Wednesday.

In a letter sent Wednesday to the village board, Slottje accused the board of failure to comply with state law in its handling of the proposed Schlumberger gas drilling support facility planned for 90 acres the company owns at The Center at Horseheads industrial park.

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ITALY, N.Y. (AP) - A town in the scenic Finger Lakes region of western New York has rejected an application from a company that wanted to build an 18-turbine wind farm.

The Italy Town Board also voted Monday night to impose a moratorium on accepting any new applications for wind farm developments.

For at least five years, Ecogen LLC has sought permission to build a total of 34 turbines in the area - 18 in Italy and 16 in nearby Prattsburgh. The turbines would be 415 feet tall, equal to those erected by another company in the adjoining town of Cohocton in Steuben County.

Beth O'Brien, a spokeswoman for Ecogen's partner, Pattern Energy Group, said the firm was "extremely disappointed" and "weighing its options."

Schlumberger has submitted an alternate site plan to village officials for its proposed facility in Horseheads.

In response to concerns raised during the ongoing review process, the company made changes to its site plan that are designed to “provide more efficient vehicle operations on site while increasing safety and reducing energy consumption, among other benefits,” according to a release from the village.

As a result, some changes have been made to the schedule of the review process.
A public hearing on the site plan scheduled for Thursday has been postponed.

Instead, a special meeting of the village’s Planning Board has been scheduled for 5 p.m. Thursday at Horseheads Village Hall, 202 S. Main St., during which the board will review the alternate site plan.

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Effective Oct. 14, opening burning of residential waste will be prohibited in all communities statewide, regardless of population, the Department of Environmental Conservation announced.

Exceptions include burning tree limbs and branches at limited times and other certain circumstances.

Previously, the ban applied only in towns with populations of 20,000 or more.

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Schlumberger has submitted an alternate site plan to village officials for its proposed facility in Horseheads.

In response to concerns raised during the ongoing review process, the company made changes to its site plan that are designed to “provide more efficient vehicle operations on site while increasing safety and reducing energy consumption, among other benefits,” according to a release from the village.

As a result, some changes have been made to the schedule of the review process.
A public hearing on the site plan scheduled for Thursday has been postponed.

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MADRID (Dow Jones)--Spain's antitrust regulator, the CNC, said Monday it had opened a probe to investigate Spanish electricity companies Iberdrola SA (IBE.MC), Endesa SA (ELE.MC) and Gas Natural SDG SA (GAS.MC) among others, for possibly abusing their dominant market positions.

In a press release, the regulator said the companies changed the sources of electricity in order to charge higher prices and boost revenue.

The CNC also believes that Iberdrola could have altered the wholesale electricity market in the second half of 2006 to provoke an artificial increase in the limitations of the network.

The probe also affects Germany's E.ON AG (EOAN.XE), Hidrocantabrico, Electrabel, Aceca, Elcogas and Nueva Generadora del Sur.

Company Web site: www.iberdrola.com; www.endesa.com

-By Juan Montes, Dow Jones Newswires, +34-91-395-8136, juan.montes@dowjones.com

In Support of a Twelve Month Extension of Our Moratorium on the Development of Industrial Wind Turbines in the Town of Lyme

Town of Lyme Board, My family is a 6 year summer resident here in Chaumont, on Point Salubrious, and we ask that you extend the moratorium on Industrial Wind Turbines in the Town of Lyme. There is no need to continue with this mad rush of placing industrial wind turbines. The primary asset of the Golden Crescent, and what brought my family here is the unspoiled natural beauty and serenity of the area. As I move into retirement I've hoped to make this my primary residence, now I'm scared what our area will become. I went up and viewed the western end of Wolf Island and was horrified at what I saw. I'm scared as to what may happen to our community and can only imagine the negative impact this will have on the value of our water front properties here in Lyme. I would guess that a very significant portion of our local tax base is in fact from all of these waterfront properties, let's not shoot ourselves in the foot for what may amount to a short term gain for a few residents at the expense of the rest of the town. Over the last twelve months we have paid $5,153.86 in local real estate taxes, will the land owners of these new industrial wind turbines shoulder a shift in tax burden?

Let's continue our moratorium on all Industrial Wind Turbine projects and assess where we are, the wind is not going anywhere! Let's preserve what we have for all and go slowly and carefully with a project that has such powerful and long reaching implications to our local community and offers benefits to so few.

We ask that this letter/email be made a part of public record at the October 14th town council meeting. I would appreciate this letter be read at this meeting in our absence. Please protect my property rights.

Charlie, Robin, Megan and Emma Sidwa

The latest volume of an epic story about the Southern Tier's global energy ambitions is still being printed, and it has already generated plenty of buzz.

It's in the form of an 809-page technical report detailing the hazards and safeguards associated with harvesting the Marcellus Shale, the largest natural gas reserve in the country.

The document, released last week by the Department of Environmental Conservation, is at the core of a conflict about how effectively New York will lay new ground rules for an industry poised to change the economic and environmental landscape of the Southern Tier.

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If the United States is going to set up a cap-and-trade system similar to the one in Europe in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, who will regulate the new carbon market?

That question has yet to be settled.

As written in the Senate climate bill introduced on Wednesday, the job would go to the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, an organization that currently oversees the commodity futures and option markets in the United States.

In the House climate bill, passed in June, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission would assume the main responsibilities — with the C.F.T.C. handling only the trading of carbon “derivatives.”

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