Turbines' negative impact
Despite industry denials, the health impacts of wind power are finally being discussed (“An ill wind follows turbines,” March 27).
It does not bode well for addressing human impacts that the impacts to birds have long been known, but have been ignored, denigrated or “mitigated.”
Proper environmental siting is key to green wind power development, but industry is instead siting according to the acceptance of county commissioners, available infrastructure and willing lessors.
Twenty years of dealing with wind power have convinced me that industry’s fallback position of mitigation is an ineffective and empty promise.
In Klickitat County, Wash., overlooking the eastern Columbia River Gorge, the National Audubon Society’s designated Columbia Hills Important Bird Area is being clobbered by border-to-border wind power development. The IBA program is Audubon’s attempt to save the best remaining bird habitat. Audubon and public wildlife agencies have protested to no avail.
Wind power has been in the Northwest for about 20 years and we still have no cumulative impact analysis or regional planning. It is an environmental train wreck.
As for economic impacts, wind power is already hitting the ratepayers and the taxpayers hard and the investors will be next. Three towers have already failed, the technology is complicated and maintenance is expensive. The chance that wind power will pencil out economically is just about nil. But media hype and subsidies continue to drive development.
DAVE THIES
President, Columbia Gorge Audubon Society
White Salmon, Wash.
4 April 2009
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
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