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September 2006-
Bangor New York Town Board passes resolution to draft a law similar to Malone NY, banning Industrial
Turbines.
Hats off to these officials.
BRANDON COUNCILMAN MAKES PUBLIC STATEMENT ABOUT SUPERVISOR AND WIND COMPANY BRIBE
Brandon, New York, USA
September 20, 2006
At a regular town board meeting; after the meeting was called to order, the roll call and
Pledge of Allegiance, Councilman Jay Ulrich opened the meeting with a statement.
It was very emotional. The crowd of near 100 people listened with intensity. Jay was
commended more than once for his courage. Devastating to those of us who realize how invaluable Councilman Ulrich is to the
Town of Brandon.
The public statement was an accounting of a conversation between himself and Supervisor, Michael
Lawrence which took place on Supervisor Lawrence's front porch on September 6th, 2006.
The statement began by saying that Michael Lawrence had accused Jay of being offered a bribe
from Noble Environmental Power and accepting it. Jay asked Michael to call the State Police and report it. Michael
declined and went on to say that he too had been offered a bribe from Noble Environmental Power.
Jays concerns included the loss of friendship, devastation to his family, and loss of integrity
in the Town of Brandon and an embarrassment to the town and Town Board by Michael. He later expressed that the relationships
in the community are "sacred."
Michael responded with an apology to Jay and Noble. Nothing elaborate. Just, "
I apologize to you and to Noble."
We all know that these have all diminished at the hands of Noble Environmental Power's invasion
of our town which is no longer a community. There was no community Christmas Party last year....an annual tradition
as long as I can remember. There was no community yard sale weekend....there were no community events since this invasion.
At the end of the meeting, I stood up and spoke. I asked how can people say there are no negative
impacts of wind farms? One of the most important was just demonstrated in real life, right here at home. Michael
and Jay were once very close friends. The things that persons with morals and ethics value more than anything are gone
forever in the town of Brandon. A town of 500 people, totally divided.
Anne Britton
Brandon Resident and no longer proud to be.
... there is a man named Dr. Geoff Leventhall from the United Kingdom who hires himself
out to wind energy companies as a noise consultant -- the noise being from industrial wind turbines.
The interesting thing about this Leventhall is that he insists, in the face of clear
evidence to the contrary, that industrial wind turbines produce no low frequency noise (basically, infrasound). So he
wrote in the Malone (New York, USA) Telegram this past autumn, "I have always said ... there
is no problem of infrasound from wind turbines" (p. 4). Earlier this month (February 2006) he was quoted in the
Hawke's Bay Today (New Zealand) newspaper as saying, "'I can state quite categorically that there
is no significant infrasound from current designs of wind turbines.'"
Dr. Leventhall doesn't seem to know what he thinks. For when we turn to his May
2003 DEFRA (UK) "Review of Published Research on Low Frequency Noise and Its Effects," he writes: "Infrasound
... is common in urban environments, and as an emission from many artificial sources ... including wind turbines."
Oops! Leventhall goes on: "The effects of infrasound or low frequency noise are of particular
concern because of its pervasiveness due to numerous sources, efficient propagation, and reduced efficiency of many structures
(dwellings, walls, and hearing protection) in attenuating low frequency noise compared with other noise" (p. 54). (Turn
to the footnote back on p. 53 of the "Review" and we're told this section was "contributed by" Dr. P.L. Pelmear.
This does not let Leventhall off the ethical hook, however; as lead author he must take full responsibility for everything
in his report.)
Like I say, Leventhall doesn't seem to know what he thinks. For that matter, it's
not clear he and his co-authors do the thinking they take credit for. When we turn to Dr. Birgitta Berglund's "Sources
and Effects of Low-Frequency Noise" in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (May 1996), we find
that the entire paragraph, above, appears to be lifted virtually verbatim from Berglund's article (compare the two paragraphs,
below).
Hmmmm. Pelmear/Leventhall fail to acknowledge Berglund as their (apparent) source,
nor do they put quotation marks around their text. A double infraction. (When I was a university professor, I
gave students a failing grade for copying someone else's material without credit; indeed I had a colleague who was de-tenured
and fired for publishing other people's text without credit.)
At a minimum, Leventhall appears to be careless. He also appears to be indecisive.
Mostly, however, given the growing body of research on low frequency noise from industrial wind turbines (see GP van den Berg's
scholarly articles, along with Dr. O. Soysal's noise measurements at the Meyersdale, PA, USA, windplant, and Dr. DMJP Manley's
research), Leventhall seems to be a man representing, above all, the agenda of the wind energy companies (like Noble Environmental,
LLC) that employ his services.
Calvin Luther Martin, PhD
Associate Professor of History (retired)
Rutgers University
New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA
PS Anyone wishing to see scanned copies of each of the publications referred to,
above, may contact me at rushton2@westelcom.com and I will be happy to furnish them.
We were mentioned on the front page of the Malone Telegram on April 14th, check it out!
JUNE 11, 2005
FORMATION OF STATEWIDE ORGANIZATION
Three members of our organizations were invited and attended the meeting held by Tom Golisano in
Rochester, NY.
We were two of twelve organizations in attendance. The main purpose was to agree to
a strategy and use www.saveupstateny.org as a central data bank. There were many ideas set forth and it was interesting to see the approaches of other organizations.
We are the towns with the most impact. Others spoke of 12 towers, 33 towers, etc...not 521 as the plan for our
area.
Kaye (North Country Advocates), and Anne (WOW) presented the introductions of our groups and
the efforts and successes that our groups had encountered. We were also able to answer many questions that were set
forth by other groups. Some of them have been organized and battling since 2001.
June 13, 2005
GROUP INTRODUCTION/FORMATION OF ELLENBURG BRANCH OF WOW
Anne attended the Ellenburg Town Board meeting as part of the board's agenda.
The introduction was superb. Residents from both sides of the issue were impressed and
respected the presentation. Next month's regular meeting will have a 20 minute presentation on the agenda-(after we
familiarize ourselves with the current situation out there).
Both Noble and Zilkha representatives attended. The introduction was presented without
a challenge from either wind salesmen.
We are looking forward to having as many people as possible at the July 11th meeting in Ellenburg.
The regular meeting is scheduled for 7 p. m. at the Ellenburg Town Office
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