Wind ‘investments’?
Bangor Daily News | Posted Dec. 10, 2013 | bangordailynews.com
I was interested in the Dec. 7 letter by Steve Perry of Lincoln who calls for the state of Maine to take on more “investments” in the wind industry. While these projects do give local construction companies some short-term cash, the long-term effects of wind power linger long after they have collected their last paycheck for destroying our forests, birds, mountaintops, lakes and streams.
If these were true investments, they would never get done. They are taking dollars from every Mainer and every American to fund projects that have little value in mitigating carbon dioxide and produce only a fraction of their output most of the time. The northeastern grid is not up to date enough to carry the intermittent output, and the upgrade will cost billions. Our rates go up again as we have to pay.
They are not responsible for shutting down one single gas, oil, nuclear or hydroelectric plant. If these were real “investments,” private companies would be looking to make a profit, selling power at a competitive rate. Since there have been no proven cases where that has shown to be possible, it has been pushed over onto the public sector, which has proven that the best thing it can do is throw our money at it; and when it fails, we get the bill, again.
James Lutz
Bangor
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/12/10/wind-investments/