Harnessing wind works nowhere; why try it here?
Your opinion poll question on wind turbines (“Would you accept a wind farm within sight of your home if it did not contribute to a significant decrease in your electric bill?” Jan. 23 Times-News) is based on a false premise and does not provide enough information for a reasoned response. Better it should read:
“Would you be in favor of hundreds of 420-foot wind turbines plastered all over our ridges everywhere you look, together with miles of new transmission lines, interconnects, roads, erosion, clearcutting of thousands of trees, catastrophic environmental damage to birds, bats, flora and fauna, declining property values and permanent loss of historical and cultural landscapes that have existed for thousands of years, if they did absolutely nothing to reduce global warming and caused your electric bills to triple?”
This is what will happen if we continue this insane and fruitless attempt to make wind energy a substitute for coal, gas and nuclear energy. It has not worked anywhere in the world, why would you think it would work here?
And if you don’t believe your electric bills will triple, just take a look at the provisions for billions of additional taxpayer subsidies for wind in the current “stimulus bill.” Next up will be trillions for a new “National Grid” to try to move wind energy around the country as the winds shift. It won’t work either. Surely, we are smarter than this!
Margaret M. Collins
Swanton
1 February 2009
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
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