Buffalo Rising Online

Jan 22nd 2006, 1:57pm By queenseyes

This Thursday, January 26th, the Wind Action Group (WAG), as part of a contract with NYSERDA (the NYS Energy Research & Development Authority), has invited local environmental organizations to participate in the first of two Wind Energy Roundtables. This event will be held promptly from 5:30 PM to 7:00 PM in room 1417 of Buffalo City Hall.

We invite you to participate as well, or to come and observe if you'd rather do that. We believe wind power can be a key part of a clean, economical, independent energy future for the US, and are holding this discussion to make sure that all voices and viewpoints are heard as wind is considered. NYSERDA's Shoreline Wind study has provided reliable data showing that WNY is a suitable place to site wind turbines. We want development to happen in a manner that is environmentally responsible and responsive to the community.

The purpose of this session will be to identify, in a non-judgmental fashion, the hopes, concerns and questions the environmental community has in relation to wind energy. A second session will be held to delve into the key issues identified on Thursday night. The second session is tentatively scheduled for February 23rd, with the location not yet determined. Please save the date.

Meeting Format: We are a community with a common interest in protecting the environment. Whether we wind up on the same or different sides regarding a specific wind project it is helpful to all of us to identify our collective hopes and concerns relative to wind and to have an intelligent and respectful discussion of them so we all might learn.

At this meeting, WAG will first present its hopes, which have been encapsulated in a power point presentation which has been shown throughout the community and which is available to be shown to any of the invited groups.

We will then hold a brainstorming session where all are invited to list their concerns, hopes and questions. As a group we will also rank the importance of the listed items for discussion using, sticky dots on the lists we generate.

The idea here is not to convince each other that a given point means that wind energy should or shouldn't happen, but to identify all the things that are on our minds. We will set a one-minute time limit on each person's comments, and if you have more than 1 minute's worth of comments at this time, we hope to be able to give you a 2nd minute after everyone has had a chance to say their piece. If you have a longer set of thoughts you would like to give, please think about letting us know you'd like to be a debater or presenter at the 2nd roundtable. -Bill Nowak

For more information on the Wind Action Group, see www.greengold.org/wind For more information on NYSERDA see www.powernaturally.org