Answers needed on wind project
www.dailyadvance.com 15 July 2011
Once again the editors of The Daily Advance have been duped. In their support of support of local “wind farms” they are drinking the same Kool-Aid they did years ago with their support of the “Education Lottery.”
Now, as then, the editors giddily support a public plan that is sold to be one thing then turns into another. Before the TDA supports this wind farm they should ask: Who is Atlantic Wind going to sell electricity to when the wholesale cost is three times that of conventional power? What is the environmental impact to farmers and residents when thousands of insect eating birds and bats are killed by wind mills every year? Do you know that 400 feet is almost four times the height of a standard water tower and will be visible from almost anywhere in the county?
Why should wind power users pay to subsidize wind power with federal funds then pay higher usage costs? Will this project make economic sense in the next five years? Next ten years? Ever? A project with such long term, universal impact should make financial sense for everyone – not just the few farmers seeking revenue for land lease and the county seeking funds from taxing the project.
I know people have grand ideas of 300 local citizens finding jobs building these monsters but the reality is the building teams and engineers who will have the “high-paying” permanent jobs will come from outside the area, not from the graduating class of the local high schools or colleges. My fear is that in the end we are going to be stuck with an obsolescent, giant steel forest that will blight the countryside for the next hundred years.
Does The Daily Advance really want to support this project with so little thought?
GEORGE WATERS
Elizabeth City
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/06/15/answers-needed-on-wind-project/