October 2, 2019
Texas

Wind energy has its drawbacks

Gainesville Daily Register | www.gainesvilleregister.com

In a rousing opinion on wind energy in the Weekly News, Gayla Dovre, Gainesville, praiseswind developers and applauds courageous land owners who would lease their land to them.

Dovre also chided a “small, but quite wealthy clique” who want to stop wind development inCooke County. She went on to describe them as a “few people” who don’t like the red blinkinglights. (For the record, I’m not too fond of the red blinking lights either). Dovre then suggestedthat these detractors reconsider and sign up their land for turbines, whereupon they should takethe money, then pack up and find a new place to live. I don’t see any takers on this novel concept.

If things don’t quite go Dovre’s way in this scrap, I wonder if she’d be reciprocally willing to heedher own advice and pack up and find a new place to live as she suggested to these unnamed “quite wealthy few.”

Dovre accuses past generations of destroying the ozone layer, melting the ice caps andpolluting our environment. She blames oil fields and coal mines as being the culprits in contaminating our water tables and oceans. Dovre wants us totally weaned off oil and states that it’s clear that continuing dependence on Middle East and other sources for oil is a disaster waiting to happen. (And all the while I thought we were achieving oil independence). She gives no credentials as to being a climate scientist, environmental engineer, etc. and conveniently makes no mention of the many calamities associated with wind turbines.

Gayla Dovre’s lengthy missive on global warming and wind energy eerily reminds me of a famous quote attributed to the late W. C. Fields. Many of us remember the legendary sage’s warm advice on the art of persuasion, when he said: “If you can’t dazzle ‘em with brilliance, then baffle ‘em with bulls…”. Respectfully, I see a lot of baffle here, not much dazzle.

On a serious note, it is an undisputed fact that wind turbine blades slaughter many birds of all species, especially noted are raptors such as owls, eagles, hawks and vultures. These birds and others are permanent or migratory residents in Cooke County. Their diet consists largely of rabbits and rodents that inhabit the pastures and meadows below the lurking turbines. If anyone is convicted of killing a bald eagle, they are fined thousands of dollars and might earn jail time. If a turbine blade chops up one or two bald eagles or a few red-tailed hawks, it’s considered a small sacrifice to pay in the fight against global warming.

People-friendly purple martins and swallows graze on the wing in their pursuit of insects. Too bad for them, as scores are killed while chasing insects into these giant mechanical freaks.

These beautiful birds along with cardinals, buntings, quail etc. don’t even rate discussion in the wind debate.

Did you know that a wind turbine can survive with no wind, but will die a quick death with no subsidy!

Janie Vogel, Saint Jo

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2019/10/02/wind-energy-has-its-drawbacks/