December 4, 2011
Letters, Massachusetts

Wind shock ahead?

Falmouth Enterprise December 2, 2011

The 2008 Green Communities Act gave the green light for Falmouth’s ride on the wind. Recently, that ride has been halted while officials examine health and safety dangers.

But is there another danger looming on the horizon?

Attorney General Martha Coakley explained to politicians at a recent hearing reexamining the noted legislation that the cost of implementing this program over the next four years will cause delivery costs for electricity to rise 7 percent by 2015.

The burden of the extra expense will be borne by utility customers.

There is movement underway to totally eliminate this legislation, however. Politicians, finally hearing their constituency, are realizing that citizen income is low and business is struggling.

People are wanting less focus on the environment and more on help that will allow the immediate needs of food and shelter to be met.

Only now, three years after the bill was enacted, is there cost analysis being done to assess its impact on customers (not to mention the after-the-fact health and safety analysis on wind turbines).

I’m left to wonder, will electric shock cause bigger wind turbulence in Falmouth?

How will this dramatic change in enviro-legislation affect wind energy subsidies already afforded Falmouth? Could the state call in the capital loans and other money associated with the municipal project?

Could the benefit of the net metering method of selling power to NStar, which made the Falmouth plan fiscally doable, suddenly vanish?

The Green Communities charade might come at a costly expense, at a most inopportune time, for all Massachusetts electric rate payers.

That cost, how-ever, might pale in comparison to electrostatic wind shock experienced by Falmouth taxpayers.

Mark J. Cool
Fire Tower Road
West Falmouth


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/12/04/wind-shock-ahead/