Wind Power News: Opinions
These news and opinion items are gathered by National Wind Watch to help keep readers informed about developments related to industrial wind energy. They are the products of the organizations or individuals noted and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of National Wind Watch.
Commission should listen to Bourne on wind project
The New Generation Wind Project proposes to erect four 492-foot tall wind turbines in a rural section of Bournedale. These turbines would be higher and closer to neighboring properties than the one in Falmouth that has caused such huge negative neighborhood impacts. The Patrick administration’s Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs recently took the unusual step of intervening in this local Cape matter, with a letter to the Cape Cod Commission claiming it had never heard of anywhere in . . .
Green Energy Act divides Ontario
Nobody knows what’s best for a community better than the people, small businesses and local councillors who live there. That is why it is so maddening to see signs of large industrial wind and solar projects pushing ahead despite endless local opposition. Under any other circumstance, ratepayers would have a say in what is built in their community. Your local council can determine where a hot dog stand can go, but because of Dalton McGuinty’s Green Energy Act, they are . . .
Wind committee concludes shadow flicker not an issue
When siting a wind turbine in a populated area, one of the issues that needs to be addressed is shadow flicker. In the early days of the wind energy industry in the U.S. this was not an issue as projects were being installed in remote areas. As wind energy use has increased and wind turbines are being installed closer to where people live and work –more like they are in Europe – the issue has become more important. Shadow flicker . . .
Rebuttal to Avram Patt
I am writing in response to Avram Patt’s Opinion piece titled, “Wind farms: Large, visible … and necessary” published by VTDigger on Jan. 31, 2012. While Mr. Patt made some interesting points, there are issues in his piece that must be addressed. For example, he asserts that there is a one-to-one ratio between wind power generated and the reduction of power generated from other sources. There is no reliable data to support this assertion. Here in the New England grid . . .
Wind power and corporate greed
In a tiny upstate New York hamlet called Meredith, amid the abandoned barns and fallow pastures of one of the poorest counties of the Northeast, a civil war was recently fought over one of the catchphrases of the ecology movement — wind power. Now, when I use that phrase, I’ll bet most people react as I used to, with a kind of warm, cozy feeling, as befits a clean, renewable source of energy that can get this nation off our . . .
Professionals should be zealously pursuing answers on wind
I am respectfully writing in response to the Guest View letter by Gordon L. Deane; “Misinformation has undue influence in turbine debate” of Feb. 2. I have a question; how did he get himself in such an awkward position? His engineers should have foreseen and advised that there would be an adverse public response to wind turbine noise. There are published documents that would have clearly shown neighbors’ seeking relief with appeals for legal action. My profession as INCE member . . .
Huff and puff of wind farm critics falls on deaf ears
It’s not quite a case of biting the hand that feeds; after all Alex Salmond and his ministers played the Donald Trump application for that golf course in Aberdeenshire strictly by the book, didn’t they? Still, the fuss that the American businessman is making over an offshore wind farm that, presumably on a clear day, could be seen from his fairways and hotel must be a bit of a surprise, to say the least, for our SNP masters. He’s made . . .
On the path to a dark, silent forest of spruce
Caithness has few really good paths. There are plenty of rather boring forest tracks and roads, but if you want a good long walk you have to be prepared to read a map, cross pathless country and tackle obstacles such as ditches and wet ground. There are plenty of places where good, signposted paths could be made but in general there has been neither the will nor the money to do it. A piece on the radio about walking old . . .
Tilting at windmills
Documentary makers are always hoping that their film will come out at just the right moment, when a favorable news cycle and popular sentiment are converging so that the public is primed for their message. In 1989, Michael Moore made his career with “Roger & Me,” a documentary that pinned the decline of his hometown — Flint, Mich. — on General Motors. By focusing his fire on GM’s chairman, Roger Smith, Moore tapped into the public’s anger at tone-deaf corporate . . .
Toppling tax dollars for turbines
On February 1, an urgent alert was sent to supporters of wind energy. It stated: “The PTC is the primary policy tool to promote wind energy development and manufacturing in the United States. While it is set to expire at the end of 2012 … the credit has already effectively expired. Congress has a choice to make: extend the PTC this month and keep the wind industry on track…” The wind energy industry has reason for concern. America’s appetite for . . .
