LOCATION/TYPE

NEWS HOME

[ exact phrase in "" • results by date ]

[ Google-powered • results by relevance ]


Archive
RSS

Add NWW headlines to your site (click here)

WHAT TO DO
when your community is targeted

Get weekly updates
RSS

RSS feeds and more

Keep Wind Watch online and independent!

Donate via Stripe

Donate via Paypal

Selected Documents

All Documents

Research Links

Alerts

Press Releases

FAQs

Campaign Material

Photos & Graphics

Videos

Allied Groups

Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005.

News Watch Home

Wind power isn’t the answer 

Credit:  The Portland Press Herald, www.pressherald.com 13 May 2012 ~~

In an April 15 editorial (“PUC made right call on wind power investment”), the Maine Sunday Telegram states: “From an environmental perspective, the benefits of expanding wind generation are worth the visual impact.”

Environmentally, industrial wind has yet to prove any of its claims. No scientific evidence exists to prove the environmental benefits of industrial wind. In fact, the recent Bentek study disproved the CO2-reduction myth that has bolstered this “green” energy for so long.

The American Bird Conservancy’s studies on raptor, bat and migratory bird kills by industrial turbines have prompted lawsuits by the Sierra Club and Audubon alleging violations of federal laws. Fragmenting fragile and critical wildlife habitat with industrial roads, transmission lines, clear cutting and herbicide spraying hardly constitutes good environmental stewardship.

Forty years of industrial wind development nationwide has netted a mere 3 percent of our energy needs and resulted in thousands of abandoned, rusting turbines littering the landscapes of Hawaii, Texas and California. Will turning Maine’s mountains into junkyards make us more environmentally friendly?

Destroying Maine’s viewsheds threatens Maine’s most powerful economic engine. Tourism brings $10 billion in goods and services and $535 million in taxes annually into this state and provides 175,000 full-time jobs. Tourists are drawn here by our pristine environment and our scenic viewsheds.

How does threatening this valuable, storied and much-beloved landscape with sprawling industrial development benefit our state from any perspective? Our iconic mountains are not renewable. We are the stewards of one of the most beautiful states in the nation. What sort of legacy will we leave our children?

We outlaw billboards on our highways as “unsightly” but destroy our scenic viewsheds? Perhaps the Maine Sunday Telegram should better explain its position.

Penelope Gray

Freeport

Source:  The Portland Press Herald, www.pressherald.com 13 May 2012

This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.

Wind Watch relies entirely
on User Contributions
   Donate via Stripe
(via Stripe)
Donate via Paypal
(via Paypal)

Share:

e-mail X FB LI M TG TS G Share


News Watch Home

Get the Facts
CONTACT DONATE PRIVACY ABOUT SEARCH
© National Wind Watch, Inc.
Use of copyrighted material adheres to Fair Use.
"Wind Watch" is a registered trademark.

 Follow:

Wind Watch on X Wind Watch on Facebook Wind Watch on Linked In

Wind Watch on Mastodon Wind Watch on Truth Social

Wind Watch on Gab Wind Watch on Bluesky