Industrial wind farms are invading Maine. The companies that seek to build these farms say they will decrease the production of greenhouse gases, reduce our reliance on imported oil and diversify our nation’s electricity generation portfolio. These statements are misleading at best.
Energy produced by wind turbines is unpredictable and difficult to include in the real picture of energy consumption. The energy grid we depend on for electricity cannot fluctuate with the wind. Reliable sources must always be ready to produce as backup, especially when depending on turbines in areas of marginal wind.
Companies can build unproductive farms because of tax breaks, subsidies and incentives (new transmission lines) implemented to combat global warming and decrease our need for foreign oil. This is a well-intentioned government program perverted. Government agencies tolerate this well-documented boondoggle because they can claim a percentage of green energy production whether or not consumers ever enjoy it. We are being scammed for corporate profits and governmental bragging rights.
Check out the other side of the industrial wind farm story. You can start at www.wind-watch.org. Don’t let your only source of information be the energy corporations and government bureaucracies.
Esse Hammel
Wallagrass
30 June 2008
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2008/06/30/wind-power-scam/