If you really want to cut energy consumption, reduce pollution, improve public health and protect our environment, it’s time to contact your elected officials, educate them about the lessons of Denmark, Germany and elsewhere, and tell them you want tougher energy efficiency measures instead of wind power plants.
Otherwise, in the next few years, you’ll be looking at wind turbines in some of your favorite places, with the knowledge that they’re doing little more than funneling your tax dollars to a few lucky corporations and landowners, and away from better solutions.

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"

Researched and written by Eleanor Tillinghast of Green Berkshires Inc. this is a comprehensive study of the probable impact of industrial wind plants on the rural character, quality-of-life and economy of the Berkshires in western Massachusetts. Specific issues addressed include visual aesthetics, tourism, property values, public roads and public safety.

"Wind turbines generate noise from multiple mechanical and aerodynamic sources. As the technology has advanced, wind turbines have gotten much quieter, but noise from wind turbines is still a public concern. The problems associated with wind turbine noise have been one of the more studied environmental impact areas in wind energy engineering. Noise levels can be measured, but, similar to other environmental concerns, the public's perception of the noise impact of wind turbines is in part a subjective determination.

Noise is defined as any unwanted sound. Concerns about noise depend on 1) the level of intensity, frequency, frequency distribution and patterns of the noise source; 2) background noise levels; 3) the terrain between the emitter and receptor; and 4) the nature of the noise receptor. The effects of noise on people can be classified into three general categories (National Wind Coordinating Committee, 1998):

1) Subjective effects including annoyance, nuisance, dissatisfaction

2) Interference with activities such as speech, sleep, and learning

3) Physiological effects such as anxiety, tinnitus, or hearing loss"........

prepared by the Renewable Energy Research Laboratory Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering University of Massachusetts at Amherst

This presentation indicates that for New England the increasing demand for summer-time electricity is greater and increasing faster than winter-time demand. The fast-rising need for power in summer will likely result in construction of new power plants to keep ahead of demand - although inland industrial wind plants will not be able to contribute much to this demand period due to their very low capacity factor during summer months.

Written by Jonathan Haughton, Douglas Giuffre and John Barrett, this report addresses the prospective impact on the Cape Cod economy of 130 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound. The study includes the responses of tourists and residents to the aesthetics of the proposed project as well as the result of a survey among tourists on the degree to which the project would influence their desire to visit the area. The authors conclude that 'caution' is in order. A follow-up study entitled "Free but Costly" An Economic Analysis of a Wind Farm in Nantucket Sound" was published in March 2004.

This power point presentation addresses the issues and suggests strategies for achieving changes in local zoning and planning regulations.

The purpose of this report is to identify and characterize the range of options available to municipalities for purchasing green power and improving the efficiency with which electricity is consumed. Municipalities have several viable options for purchasing electricity in a fashion that is consistent with the energy, cost, and environmental goals of the community. Municipalities are in a better position to achieve certain policy goals than are individual customers through their collective buying power. A municipality’s advantage lies in the size of its electricity load, in the potential for more sophisticated decision-making than individual customers can apply, and in the potential for reflecting more of the public interest in the decision-making process.

Comments to FERC by the New England Conference of Public Utility Commissions and the Vermont Department of Public Service