Q. Even considering all of those factors or weaknesses, what is your conclusion regarding the impact on residential property values from the proposed project?

A. Under certain circumstances as described in my report, the negative impact may be similar. Also, in significant view loss situations, as described in my report, I would conclude that, within a reasonable degree of professional certainty, land values may be negatively impacted 17% - 20%.

Editor's Note: Mr. Zarem argues that the appropriate methodology for estimating the 'view' impact of industrial wind turbines on property values is 'paired data analysis'- defined in the The Dictionary of Real Estate Appraisal as: “A quantitative technique used to identify and measure adjustments to the sale prices or rents of comparable properties; to apply this technique, sales or rental data on nearly identical properties are analyzed to isolate a single characteristic’s effect on value or rent.” In the absence of relevant view/turbine data, he derived an alternative paired data analysis for determining view impacts on property values due to wind turbines from Transmission Line view impacts on the prices of single-family residential lots in subdivisions...as...sufficient paired data isolating the effects of view loss due to Transmission Lines exist in the marketplace to reach reasonable conclusions as to market tendencies. This data isolates impacts due to view loss associated with Transmission Lines.

This report prepared by the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee examines how American taxpayers have paid out nearly $4 billion to foreign-owned companies as part of a stimulus program that pays cash grants to green-energy firms. Republicans on the Committee charged that the Treasury Department-administered program has "failed" in its goal of putting Americans to work.

Many of the complaints in the UK relating to wind farm noise appear to be due to the amplitude modulation (AM) of the aerodynamic noise from the blades, sometimes referred to as "swish" or "thump". Dick Bowdler explores the existing evidence and summarizes how the totality of what people experience when listening to wind turbine noise is really dependent on operating modes, weather, and even the location of the listener with respect to the turbines and the wind.

Wind Turbine Sound and Health Effects, An Expert Panel Review (A/CanWEA Panel Review) was prepared for and sponsored by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) and the Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA). In response, an analysis was conducted by The Society for Wind Vigilance of the A/CanWEA Panel Review. Details of the analysis are explained in this report. For convenience the remainder of the analysis and critique is done in a tabulated format of point - counterpoint. The volume of material necessitated this approach and hopefully will enhance the clarity of the critique being put forward. The method utilized was to excerpt each of the claims and place it in the context of authoritative and contrary information. In addition an effort has been made to identify the errors of omission as well as those of commission.

The natural foods grocery chain, Whole Foods, failed to do its homework when it agreed to buy “wind energy” and, thereby, launch the nation’s largest demonstration to date of “ green energy” pseudo-environmentalism!

Three of the interesting conclusions from the analysis:

• “109 huge (32+ story, 350+ foot), low electricity producing wind turbines will be needed to produce the 458,000,000 kWh of “wind generated” electricity that Whole Foods has (in theory) purchased.”

• “$1 million spent for energy efficient light bulbs would avoid the use of 171,550,000 kWh of electricity over 5 years -- which is more than 3 times the 56,064,000 kWh of electricity that a $1,000,000 wind turbine might be able to produce over 20 years!”

• “Like the leaders in other organizations that have undertaken similar pseudo-environmental actions, it appears that Whole Foods executives thought only about the favorable PR benefits they would enjoy, while failing to consider the adverse impacts of their action.”

Editor's Note: According to the World Resources Institute and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency the top 10 purchasers of 'wind energy' are:

Whole Foods Market Inc. 458,000 megawatts (a year)
Johnson & Johnson 295,000 MW
DuPont & Co. 170,000 MW
Starbucks Corp. 150,000 MW
IBM Corp. 110,000 MW
Safeway Inc. 78,000 MW
HSBC 66,000 MW
NatureWorks LLC 59,000 MW
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. 52,500 MW
WhiteWave Foods 49,500 MW

The Independent Energy Producers of Maine (IEPM) commissioned the Brattle Group to prepare an analysis on retail rate trends and on the economics of utility cost-based generation in Maine. Brattle Group’s white paper was submitted to Maine Public Utilities Commission in regard to Docket 2007-317, an inquiry on reentry of electric utilities into the energy supply business. Appendix A of the paper details the "Economics of wind power in Maine".

Written by Douglas Giuffre, Jonathan Haughton, David Tuerck and John Barrett, this report analyses in economic terms the costs and benefits of a proposed 130 turbine wind plant in Nantucket Sound. It concludes that the economic costs substantially exceed the associated economic gains. This is a follow-up study to one published by Beacon Hill in October 2003 entitled "Blowing in the Wind: Offshore Wind and the Cape Cod Economy"

Thanks to the Chatham-Kent Wind Action Group in Ontario, Canada for sponsoring this audio interview with Dr. Nina Pierpont on the topic of Wind Turbine Syndrome.

In order to study the physiological and psychological effects of infrasound on person, we have measured the changes of blood pressure and heart rate and also investigated subjective feelings of subjects exposed to infrasound.