Tug Hill Places Its Future With Wind

Maple Ridge wind farm on the Tug Hill Plateau is the biggest wind power producer east of the Mississippi. Its 120 turbines are set over 14 miles in 4 Lewis County towns. They can spin out up to 170 megawatts of electricity, enough to power most of Lewis, St. Lawrence, and Jefferson Counties. This summer, Maple Ridge will build another 90 turbines. The Tug Hill region is at the cutting edge of a wind energy boom. And it’s benefiting economically, earning tens of millions of dollars in tax payments and land leases a year. That’s the trade-off for a ridgeline that will never look the same. In part two of our series on wind farms, David Sommerstein visits the neighbors of the largest wind farm in the East.