To the Editor:

In response to “Moratoriums for Windmills Doesn’t Pass” in the April 19-25 issue of North Country This Week (the article also appeared online April 15 on NorthCountryNow.com):

Quote from story: “We anticipate filing a Preliminary Scoping Statement (PSS), the next formal step of the Article 10 process, in the next month or so,” Avangrid spokesperson Paul N. Copleman said. “We believe Article 10 has the benefit of combining state oversight and expertise with an essential role for the local communities in the process.”

The legitimacy and morality underpinning Article 10 aside, once again Avangrid’s spokesperson provided an unwitting and all too common characterization of the residents whose community his employer is more than ready to sacrifice for both profit and a flawed technology.

To infer that the residents of Hopkinton, Parishville and St. Lawrence County would welcome state oversight in this matter appears to be quite the leap of faith on Mr. Copleman’s part. I would also put forth that the “local communities” already have the “expertise” needed to craft and implement regulations that, in the name of home rule, would provide a far greater benefit to their residents than those created to enrich Albany and their off-shore colleagues.

It is a stretch of anyone’s imagination to call this “essential” unless of course one is the true recipient of the actual “benefit” which in this case is Avangrid, Iberdrola and their shareholders.

Michael Effron

Potsdam