The following letter and attachment were sent to legislators in this state:

Attached is a letter that has been forwarded to the Administrative Law

Judge overseeing the Renewable Portfolio Standards proceedings. I have

written to all of you over the past several months, asking you to study

the situation in Prattsburgh New York, only to have all of you say that

this is a local issue. I maintain that what happens in Prattsburgh

affects all the taxpayers of this state and all the people who wish that

our air could be cleaner.

As the months have gone by I have become increasingly frustrated that I

find myself in the position of protesting a wind power project that has

been touted as key in the quest for clean air. The major reason that my

family spends most of its year in Prattsburgh is because of the quality

of air in New Jersey where we have our other home. I am very tuned into

the need to clean up the air.

There could be a very real place for wind power in the production of

electricity, but the piecemeal approach that is happening in New York

State is not only going to cost tens of millions of dollars to the

taxpayers, but it is not going to come close to solving the problem of

dirty air.

The different state agencies are not working together and the issue of

intermittency is not being studied the way it needs to be. There are so

many creative ways that hydro and wind could be used to actually solve

the problems that we face that it is appalling that money is being

thrown to the wind and lawmakers and state agencies are allowing the

resource of wind to be used to create yet new environmental problems in

the most beautiful areas of the state.

If a town can declare a moratorium on commercial wind farms then surely

a state can declare a moratorium on any energy plant until all the

issues are examined and explored.

Very truly yours,

Ruth Matilsky

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January 9, 2004

Ms. Rose Hamm

Utility Consumer Program Specialist

Office of Consumer Education and Advocacy

Dear Ms. Hamm:

For the past several months I have been researching wind power and its

implications for New York State, both environmentally and economically. This week I spoke with employees at NYISO, NYSEG and the PSC, all of whom suggested that I read the Renewable Portfolio Standard Proceedings. I refer to the February 19, 2003 meeting:

"With the goal of identifying and overcoming obstacles to achieving the

above stated goal we ask the ALJ to seek comments on, among other

things, the following threshold items:

.........8 The potential impact on reliability and system operations due

to the addition of renewable resources, especially those resources that

operate only intermittently (e.g. windmills and photovoltaics) and what,

if anything, must be done to ensure that reliability is

maintained.”

It is critical to understand intermittency and reliability when studying wind energy. When wind contributes a minute amount of electricity to the grid it is not too difficult to accommodate to its unique variability, but at the same time the reduction in emissions is also minute. When enough wind power plants are built so that wind is contributing as much as ten percent to the grid, the variability of wind seems to become a major issue. Other countries are discovering this, including Denmark, which is often touted as a wind power mecca. At the same time, because of the need for backup, even when wind contributes ten percent, the reduction in emissions is not necessarily as high as ten percent. It could be much lower than that. I refer you to

http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Research/ECS/IEW2003/Abstracts/2003A_liik_2abs.pdf

http://www.naboertilvindmoller.dk/index_uk.html

Until the RPS proceedings are completed it would be premature for NYSERDA to grant $4.5 million to Global Winds Harvest for a wind power plant, yet that is what is happening because from what I can tell, different state agencies are not accountable to each other. The bottom line is that everyone agrees that air pollution is a problem but the piecemeal approach that is happening right now is not going to solve that problem. There is a place for wind as an electrical generating contributor, but there must be an overall statewide plan if wind’s advantages are to be utilized for maximum emissions reduction. I would appreciate your passing this letter on to the interested parties.

Very truly yours,

RUTH MATILSKY

6724 Baker Road

Prattsburgh, New York 14873