March 12, 2011
Letters, Massachusetts

Wind turbine questions deserve serious response

Cape Cod Times, www.capecodonline.com 12 March 2011

I was amused to read Larry Cole’s My View on March 4 regarding wind turbines in which he decried public whining by, ironically, whining in public.

Cole has sought to misstate the issue in regards to land-based, wind-turbine siting since at least last May, when Harwich town meeting voted down a turbine project. Cole, citing no authority, took it upon himself to determine that only “peer-reviewed” science was applicable to the issue. This position mimics that put forward by the wind industry, who base their position on a white paper funded by them and authored by a professor at MIT.

In February, while testifying in Vermont in support of a 45-decibel noise limit, the professor was forced to admit that he had not even read the Dutch study upon which he primarily based his conclusions, and that the study did not assess health concerns for noise under 45 decibels.

Moreover, since the industry has not studied secondary effects of noise from turbines, it is disingenuous to point to the lack of “peer-reviewed” science on that issue. Perhaps Cole has confused “whining” with “wondering.” This issue deserves better than his casual disregard.

John Norton

Harwich


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/03/12/wind-turbine-questions-deserve-serious-response/