Farming dollars
Victorville Daily Press | July 20, 2014 | www.vvdailypress.com
The Victorville Daily Press is now publishing a “poll” asking readers to respond to the following question: “A 10,500-acre wind farm proposed for the highlands south of Apple Valley would supply 120 megawatts of electricity but is on hold until about November. Would you be in favor of this project if it returns to the permitting process?”
“Wind farm” sounds picturesque, but the reality would be 71 towers, each one the height of a 50story building. Wind farm sounds healthy, but the reality is that these towers, and the related roads and substations, would kill our endangered wildlife, damage our fragile environment, and threaten our health. Real farms put food on your table. This wind farm will send energy down the hill to Los Angeles and elsewhere.
And something else left out of this polling question: This wind farm cannot “supply” a single watt to anyone without the construction of a massive new transmission facility by Southern California Edison – a facility that ratepayers will fund.
SCE will pay the typical top dollar for this wind energy (conventionally generated electricity, and home solar projects, are both much cheaper than utility-grade wind power), and where will all of your dollars go? To Germany – the home base of the developer who wants to put this wind farm on your front porch.
Now that we have a few of the facts out in the open, let’s ask the question again: Would you be in favor of this project if it returns to the permitting process?
Alan Lobel, Lucerne Valley
•
It has been reported that a Daily Press reader’s poll regarding the coming 10,500-acre wind farm that will stretch a string of giant windmills across the lowland hills south of Apple Valley is favored by Daily Press readers 3–2.
This indicates to me that a majority of Daily Press readers see the assured decrease in property values in the High Desert to be a worthy trade-off for benefit of the enhanced beauty that will be brought to the area by the presence of these spectacular windmills.
No reasons are given, but since there will be no appreciable energy benefit to High Desert residents during or after the completion of this massive project, I must conclude that it must be the sense of awe that will be felt when viewing our once pristine hills and seeing a long train of colossal churning machines that represent man’s conquest of nature.
Lawrence Wilson, Apple Valley
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2014/07/20/farming-dollars/