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Wind power report’s credibility criticized
Larry Goodman of Hebron, a member of New Hampshire Wind Watch — a group that helped convince Spain wind-power giant Iberdrola Renewables to halt a proposal for a wind-power plant in the Newfound Lake-Cardigan Mountain region — cites a 2010 report from ISO New England Inc., a nonprofit corporation that serves as the regional transmission organization and independent system operator for New England power generation. “Using the wind Production Tax Credit in New England (or anywhere in the U.S.) to encourage wind development is highly inefficient,” Goodman said. “There are far more productive, far less costly approaches to reducing our emissions.”
Credit: By DAN SEUFERT, Union Leader Correspondent | www.unionleader.com ~~
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ALEXANDRIA – New Hampshire wind-power skeptics say a report issued by the Environment New Hampshire Research and Policy Center that touts the value of Granite State wind-energy plants is short on facts and exaggerates the impact of wind plants on reducing statewide carbon emissions.
In supporting a national effort by environmental groups for long-term renewal of federal tax incentive programs for renewable energy, including the Production Tax Credit and the Investment Tax Credit for wind energy – which both expired at the end of 2014 – Environment New Hampshire issued a statement Thursday which claims that wind power “has significantly reduced climate-altering carbon pollution” in the state.
The statement, which supports a report titled “Turning to the Wind” by Environment America, claims that “wind power has grown exponentially in New Hampshire over the last dozen years, and now supplies enough energy to power over 37,000 homes.” In 2014, according to ENH, wind turbines from across the state produced enough energy to reduce carbon pollution from 42,000 cars.
“Wind power (in N.H.) is already growing steadily, reducing pollution and helping to solve the climate crisis,” said Sharon Solomon, global warming solutions campaign coordinator for the group. “But we need policies to provide steady support for this clean energy resource to maintain our momentum in the fight against global warming.”
“To avoid the worst impacts of global warming, we need to transition to 100 percent clean, renewable energy, and that must include doing everything we can to develop abundant, pollution-free wind power.”
But Lisa Linowes of Lyman, the executive director of the Wind-Action Group, which researches and reports on national and regional energy policy relating to wind-power development, said those claims are not accurate.
“Wind power had nothing to do with the (carbon) reduction,” Linowes said. “The emission reductions happened without subsidy at all and were entirely related to low-cost, cleaner natural gas and persistently lower demand for electricity since the recession hit in 2008.”
Larry Goodman of Hebron, a member of New Hampshire Wind Watch – a group that helped convince Spain wind-power giant Iberdrola Renewables to halt a proposal for a wind-power plant in the Newfound Lake-Cardigan Mountain region – cites a 2010 report from ISO New England Inc., a nonprofit corporation that serves as the regional transmission organization and independent system operator for New England power generation.
“Using the wind Production Tax Credit in New England (or anywhere in the U.S.) to encourage wind development is highly inefficient,” Goodman said. “There are far more productive, far less costly approaches to reducing our emissions.”
Ric Werme, a Mount Cardigan landowner, questioned ENH’s claim that 37,000 homes could be powered by wind energy.
“They’d have to (also) be powered by good old fossil- and nuclear-base load plants a lot of the time because wind power is too unreliable for too much of today’s lifestyle,” Werme said.
Michelle Sanborn of Alexandria, the coordinator for the New Hampshire Community Rights Network, said ENH is not acting properly out of concern for the state’s environment.
“This group says on their Facebook page that they support clean air, water and open spaces of New Hampshire … (yet) they are encouraging industrial wind on New Hampshire ridgelines?” Sanborn said.
“They fail to understand the manufacturing process of industrial wind turbines, the desecration of sensitive ridgeline ecosystems, and (that) the construction of industrial wind projects and operation of such a supposedly ‘eco-friendly’ energy source also leads to human health problems, and the death of bats and birds that help to maintain rodent and insect balance, which all leads to contamination of the very environment (that ENH) professes to protect.”
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