Letter from Chip Northrup

Springfield Is No Place for Turbines

As property owners in Otsego County, we object to the two proposed 60-story windmills in the Town of Stark, which evidently is located in the Town of Springfield’s zoning district. If the proposed project is not allowed under the town’s zoning code, then the town should object and be prepared to take legal action against the developer.

This proposed project is structured to take advantage of state and federal tax codes. As such, these 60-story windmills would be doomed to go from being functioning eyesores to non-functioning eyesores as soon as the accelerated depreciation plays out.

I have some experience in wind energy technologies. My family’s solar energy company, Northrup Energy, was sold to Atlantic Richfield, which in turn was sold to BP, and was, at one time, the largest manufacturer of solar panels in the world. In the U.S., all large wind power projects are structured as tax shelters, which primarily benefit big banks. The “economic necessity” to build in Springfield is driven less by the wind available than by the New York State and federal tax credits available. When such a tax shelter reaches the end of its economic life—based on accelerated depreciation after the investors have recouped their after-tax investment—it will be sold, and the next owner will have little incentive to keep it running once in need of repair. At that point, it will be abandoned. High wind regime areas in California, such as the Altamont Pass wind farms, are literally museums of abandoned wind turbines from previous tax shelter programs.

Sixty story tax shelters are not a desirable land use in the Town of Springfield.

Chip Northrup
Cooperstown