Wind Power: An Executive Summary 

Upstate New York State may end up with some TWENTY THOUSAND wind towers.

If this concerns you, keep reading. (FYI, I am a physicist who has a 20+ year track record of interest in our environment in a variety of areas (like water quality). I live on a lake in the Adirondack Mountains, as communing with nature is one of my highest priorities.)

At first glance, wind power seems to be a potentially good thing: a clean, renewable source of energy, etc. But scientists don’t make decisions based on first glance impressions.

To come to a meaningful understanding of complex matters like wind power, open-minded people need to do a thorough examination of all major components of the issue, plus do a review of accumulated evidence to date (e.g. from wind power experiences in Europe).

Such an analysis will lead to two fundamental conclusions:

1. There is no consequential environmental benefit to wind power, and
2. It is being promoted because it is an extremely lucrative business opportunity.

Below is a brief overview as to why these are so.

There is no real environmental benefit:

1. Wind is an unpredictable commodity.
2. Energy generated from wind power can not be stored.
3. Due to the complexity of nuclear and coalfired power plants, they can not simply be “turned down” when wind power is available. Hydro power (a clean, green and low cost energy source) is cut back instead. Since nuclear and coal-fired power plants must operate at full capacity 24/7 – no emissions are reduced!

This is a lucrative business opportunity:

1. Take the cost to build and erect a typical wind tower,
2. Subtract the government provided financial incentives (your money),
3. Then the government requires the local utility to buy ALL of the electricity generated (needed or not) and to pay a premium rate (your money).
4. After taking all of these numbers into account, each turbine turns out to be a government=guaranteed 25% per year income generator.

How did this all happen? Basically:

1. Global warming has become a hot political item,
2. So the US Congress decided that they had to do something to show that they were “addressing the problem”, and they set up a committee to determine what to do.
3. Accurately sensing an opportunity to tap into some big money, the wind power special interest lobby heavily influenced the process (some say they wrote the entire legislation – not that unusual).

The bottom line is that what was legislated was not about helping the environment, and was not about benefiting taxpayers. It was principally designed to benefit large business concerns who wanted to feed at the government trough. Again, not that uncommon.

When a wind power developer targets a community, their objective is to put up as many 25% income generators as possible. To achieve this they employ three effective strategies:

1. They not only take advantage of the environmental concern that is prevalent, they make it into a patriotic matter,
2. They know that most people do not understand the complexities of the wind power issue, so they make unsupportable claims, and
3. They rely on the support they get from local people that they essentially buy off – with taxpayer money!

Since this problem was legislatively created, it must be legislatively fixed. That will only happen when citizens are informed, and when citizens subsequently speak up.

To research this to your own satisfaction, please consider the findings of independent, environmentally concerned scientists that are spelled out at such sites at www.wind-watch.org and www.aweo.org. Thank you for your interest in this important issue.