In response to the Jan. 18 letter (“Wind power must be a part of energy solution”) by Frank Maisano, former lobbyist for the coal industry, now employed by the wind industry, I don’t think that he does his clients any favors by name calling.
I am from Baltimore and am opposed to wind turbines on the Appalachian ridges of Western Maryland. I am not a “NIMBY” and I believe that honest folks from Western Maryland who are also opposed to the wind industry there have very good reasons for their opposition in addition to aesthetics, noise, or real estate values.
Even if I believed that wind industry in Maryland could significantly replace Maryland’s fossil fuel plants to meet our present and future demands, I would still be opposed to permanently altering the forested Appalachian ridges, especially on the state owned lands. As it is, even stacked side by side on top of all of those ridges, those turbines would generate an almost meaningless amount of energy to the PJM grid especially during the annual peak demand in the summer when the winds are so variable and blow the least.
Mr. Maisano’s repeated assertions that the land is already under industrial use is highly deceptive. Timbering practices while temporarily disruptive to the forests does permit the land to regenerate. Permanent placement of turbines that require the destruction of thousands of acres of forest for placement of turbines, access roads, and electrical conveyance corridors, will not allow the forest to recover.
The Appalachian ridges of Western Maryland are the biologically richest areas in Maryland because they represent the northern most species of flora and fauna of the southern Appalachians and the southern most species of the northern Appalachians. Those ridges are connecting corridors of diversity providing a continuum along the chain from Maine to Georgia that should be protected.
Mr. Maisano’s client stands to reap enormous tax shelters and benefits from our electric rates and taxes. I’m sure that he will gain a handsome salary for his attempt to pull the wool over your readers’ eyes and his lobbying efforts in Annapolis.
Ajax Eastman
Baltimore
25 January 2008
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2008/01/26/good-reason-to-oppose-turbines-on-state-land/