CITIZEN POWER ALLIANCE

Our region is participating in this green growth. Since 2000, New York state west of Utica experienced approximately $1 billion in renewable energy capital investment. More than half this investment came from wind farms, led by the Maple Ridge project near Watertown. Buffalo now is the only major U.S. city with a wind farm within sight of downtown, and wind turbines are popping up like flowers in the Southern Tier. The first ethanol plant in the Northeast, Western NY Energy, came online near Medina in 2007, and Northeast Biofuels, a former Miller Brewing plant near Fulton, Oswego County, will begin production within months. The first biodiesel production plant in New York, Northern Biodiesel, will start in 2008 next to the Harbec Plastics wind turbine on Route 104 in Ontario. There are more than a dozen landfills in the region capturing methane gas to generate electricity, including Monroe County's project at the Mill Seat Landfill.

(Click to read entire editorial)