Lobbyists, absentee landowners
Daily American, www.dailyamerican.com 8 April 2010
Recent letters to the editor by Tom Tuffey and Dorothy Manges, mother of Alan Manges an abesentee landowner, about the Shaffer Mountain wind project underscore the problem with the project – those who support the project and those who have a finacial interest in it.
Tuffey is a wind lobbyist who earns his money promoting wasteful and environmentally destructive wind projects across the state. Manges is one of those private absentee landowners who want to build wind turbines in neighbors’ backyards devaluing their property and ruining the quality of their life.
Manges will receive $5,000 per year for each turbine on his property – a property where he and his family do not live.
The fact remains that Gamesa is ignoring the will of the vast majority of people who do not want the project. Gamesa is politically protected by the current adminisration.
Official government records from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission conclusively show that wind turbines, at the best sites, produce only about 25 percent of the electricity they claim. Yet Gamesa and Tuffey continue to exaggerate production claims. Jobs are temporary at best and subsidized by our tax dollars. Our taxpayer dollars are paying the wages for the Ebenburg employees, not Gamesa or the wind industry.
Rendell was just up there handing out stimulus money – our tax money. Without government subsidies, Gamesa is not a finacially viable business. As soon as Gamesa has produced enough blades to destroy our last wild places,they will be gone.
The fact remains that wind turbines do not reduce emissions because fossil fuel plants must ALWAYS be kept running to meet baseload demand when the wind stops blowing. It takes hours to bring an idled fossil fuel plant on line once shut down, so fossil fuels can never be shut down. Instead when the wind blows they are placed in spinning mode – fired up and burning but not contributing electricity into the grid. When the wind stops, fossil fuel plants connect and dump immediate power into the grid to make up for the lost capacity from the wind turbines that have stopped generating.
Mr.Tuffey why don’t you and Gamesa engage in debate with Mr. Jack Buchan, Dr. Dick, and the many independent scientists (not the politically tainted, intimidated or controlled-DEP, USFWS, US Army corps of engineers) that have looked at this disasterous project. A local newspaper showing interest can moderate, and I am sure Public Cable Network would televise it. Then, your fantasy statements about electricity production, jobs and emission reductions can be tested in front of the pu blic. They can decide who is right. What are you afraid of – Reality?
John Sedewar
Shaffer Mountain Resident
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2010/04/08/lobbyists-absentee-landowners/