Contesting benefits of wind power
Sun Journal, www.sunjournal.com 9 February 2012
There are so many flaws in the editorial about wind power (Feb. 5) that it is hard to know where to start. From the mischaracterization of the Massachusetts report and the belittling of the so-called “vocal minority” (who are actually forced against their will to live with the health and economic effects of turbines), to the quote about “$1 billion in investment,” most of which (the editorial failed to mention), has been taxpayer money, filtered through the hands of politically-connected developers at a time when the country can’t afford such handouts.
One quote may have some merit: “And what it amounts to is like a very small desk being placed on a football field.”
Like a desk on a football field, wind turbines may seem small and benign to some, but just try playing the Super Bowl on that field, and you quickly find that the desk is both an extreme physical danger, and an economic disaster. It is in the wrong place and worse than useless.
Maine’s mountains are her football field, and the $10 billion per year tourism industry is her Super Bowl. The year-round and seasonal residents who live on and around that field are her sponsors, her chief players and her economic engine.
Please keep those 400-foot-tall desks off our field.
And before someone complains about NIMBY-ism, the truth is that the experts say more electric generation isn’t needed in Maine. If the time comes when we actually do, then I will be happy to lease a corner of my land for a generator that can actually work, like say, maybe a new generation thorium reactor.
David P. Corrigan, Concord Township
Registered Maine Master Guide
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/02/09/contesting-benefits-of-wind-power/