Wind energy has dismal record of output
March 19, 2015 | /www.watertowndailytimes.com
After a decade, we are still faced with industrial wind hucksters in Northern New York.
This time it’s the once dead Galloo Island wind proposal. Jefferson County Industrial Development Agency Executive Director Don Alexander thinks the visual impact at a distance will be equal to a thimble. However, we have solid evidence this project will be a visual disaster for eastern Lake Ontario viewscapes.
Mr. Alexander needs to review a little history before he squanders taxpayer dollars for any wind development proposal. There is an actual record on how this wind energy scam has failed and should not be supported by tax breaks. The 2014 data from the U. S. Energy Information Administration shows wind energy provided about 4 percent of U.S. electric generation. That is a paltry number. All renewables, other than hydro, provided only 6 percent. Use a little critical thinking and look at this a different way.
This means about 94 percent of U.S. electrical generation comes from other reliable sources we have depended on for decades. Wind energy on a commercial scale in the United States has been around and disproportionately supported by subsidies since the 1980s and failed to do anything significant after nearly four decades. This is 2015, three and a half decades later, and wind energy can only put out 4 percent of electric generation. And that is not generation that can be relied upon when needed. That is a dismal record the taxpayer should not be forced to invest in.
If Alexander and the JCIDA won’t use financial responsibility based on wind’s dismal record, then you need to. Mr. Alexander’s “thimble” reference is actually more representative of wind energy’s historical output. Looking at wind’s failure over more than three decades, while supported by disproportionate tax subsidies, makes it sheer financial recklessness for Alexander and the JCIDA to consider tax crutches for wind development.
Is this the financial judgment Alexander and the JCIDA are actually exercising on our behalf, trading off tax breaks for wind energy’s dismal performance against millions in property values that will be negatively impacted by the wide visual impacts of the Galloo Island project? These are visual impacts that he will force on people even beyond his county.
When you look at the reality of wind power’s dismal record, Jefferson County taxpayers should be furious and call for Alexander’s removal as well as that of any JCIDA member who votes to approve any wind developer PILOT tax scam.
Art Pundt
Cape Vincent
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2015/03/19/wind-energy-has-dismal-record-of-output/