Sen. Queen did the right thing on wind turbines
A recent letter criticized Senator Queen for voting against commercial wind development on protected mountain ridges in N.C. I believe Senator Queen made the right decision. Allowing a wind “test project” in Mitchell County opens the door for any type of commercial development all across our mountains. If the Ridge Law is weakened for one special interest group (wind developers) then why not others? The passage of Senate Bill 1068 was a bipartisan decision that reflects the importance of continuing to protect and preserve one of N.C.’s most valuable and sensitive natural environments. Ecotourism is extremely important to many mountain communities. People come to the mountains of N.C. to escape industrialized environments. Allowing commercial wind development could turn western N.C. into one continuous industrial power plant. By saying no to commercial wind development on our protected ridges, Senator Queen has proven that he is a wise steward of western N.C.’s natural wilderness areas.
The wind industry has done a good job “packaging” wind energy and has saturated the media with a great deal of false information. Even the term “wind farm” is propaganda. A large group of wind turbines is an industrial power site. Have you ever heard a nuclear power plant referred to as a “neutron farm”? Wind energy commercials on TV never show us aerial photos of wind projects on the Appalachian Mountain chain. The commercials always show wind turbines on large open plains with no trees – those are excellent places for turbines. There is no forest fragmentation, no destroyed wildlife habitat, and no bulldozing of mountain sides for roads. Alternative energy has its place – turbines on our wooded mountain tops are not it.
It’s true that property rights are an issue in regard to wind development. Property rights are often lost to benefit a wind developer. There are many cases of eminent domain being used to seize land adjoining a wind project when the property owners refuse to sign easements for transmission lines and buried cables. There is also more evidence coming to light that reveals property near wind projects can decrease considerably in value.
Commercial wind is not the “cure” for our energy dilemma and will not shut down coal plants. Wind turbines produce electricity about 25 percent of the time. Wind is an intermittent power source and will always require backup generation from other energy sources. Nothing is really accomplished – very little electricity is produced and there is virtually no reduction in CO2 emissions. And wind energy is not cheap. European countries that have the most wind development have the highest electric rates. For example, the people of Denmark pay 38 cents per kilowatt hour compared to 8 cents in the U.S. Commercial wind development is an economic and environmental folly that is wasting precious time and resources – it is destroying our environment and steering us away from finding meaningful solutions to our energy and global warming problems.
Tonya Bottomley
West Jefferson
30 September 2009
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
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