Jon Boone, an intervenor on the Clipper Wind proposal before the Maryland PSC presented these comments to the PSC in regard to Case No: 8938 Criterion Wind. The Criterion Wind project is the same project as the Clipper Wind proposal only reduced down to 70MW to qualify for fast-track review.

AN ORDINANCE ESTABLISHING A 90-DAY MORATORIUM WITHIN THE CITY OF FERGUS FALLS ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF WIND ENERGY CONVERSION SYSTEMS (WECS), THEREBY AMENDING CHAPTER 7 ENTITLED ZONING AND SUBDIVIDING, BY ADDING A NEW SECTION 7.43 FOR THAT PURPOSE; AND, BY ADDING BY REFERENCE, CITY CODE CHAPTER 1 AND SECTION 7.99 WHICH, AMONG OTHER THINGS CONTAIN PENALTY PROVISIONS.

The Citizens For A Responsible Energy Future sent this letter to all landowners in Garrett County, MD. The full letter can be downloaded by clicking on the link below.

At its August 23, 2007 meeting, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission requested that the Department of Commerce's Energy Facility Permitting staff consult with stakeholders and prepare for the Commission's consideration general permit standards and setback recommendations to satisfy the legislative mandate. The PUC issued this order on Jan 11, 2008.

This important peer-reviewed paper written by bat expert Dr. Thomas H. Kunz et al identifies the significant risk wind turbines pose for migratory and local bat populations in the mid-Atlantic Highlands region of the United States. The projected number of annual fatalities of bats at wind energy facilities in the Highlands in the year 2020 can reach up to 111,000 bats.

This document includes studies in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia.

Rube Goldberg would admire the utter purity of the pretensions of wind technology in pursuit of a safer modern world, claiming to be saving the environment while wreaking havoc upon it. But even he might be astonished by the spin of wind industry spokesmen. Consider the comments made by the American Wind Industry Association.s Christina Real de Azua in the wake of the virtual nonperformance of California.s more than 13,000 wind turbines in mitigating the electricity crisis precipitated by last July.s .heat storm.. .You really don.t count on wind energy as capacity,. she said. .It is different from other technologies because it can.t be dispatched.. (84) The press reported her comments solemnly without question, without even a risible chortle. Because they perceive time to be running out on fossil fuels, and the lure of non-polluting wind power is so seductive, otherwise sensible people are promoting it at any cost, without investigating potential negative consequences-- and with no apparent knowledge of even recent environmental history or grid operations.

Eventually, the pedal of wishful thinking and political demagoguery will meet the renitent metal of reality in the form of the Second Law of Thermodynamics (85) and public resistance, as it has in Denmark and Germany. Ironically, support for industrial wind energy because of a desire for reductions in fossil-fueled power and their polluting emissions leads ineluctably to nuclear power, particularly under pressure of relentlessly increasing demand for reliable electricity. Environmentalists who demand dependable power generation at minimum environmental risk should take care about what they wish for, more aware that, with Rube Goldberg machines, the desired outcome is unlikely to be achieved. Subsidies given to industrial wind technology divert resources that could otherwise support effective measures, while uninformed rhetoric on its behalf distracts from the discourse.and political action-- necessary for achieving more enlightened policy.

The attached two documents include the MD Public Service Commision's (PSC) proposed Siting Guidelines for wind energy facilities in MD, and a detailed critique of this draft by Dan Boone, a conservation biologist with nearly 30 years of professional experience involving wildlife biology, forest ecology, and biodiversity protection.

In this report we discuss some recent studies that have occurred in the United States since our previous work [2, 3]. The key objectives of these studies were to quantify the physical impacts and costs of wind generation on grid operations and the associated costs. Examples of these costs are (a) committing unneeded generation, (b) allocating more load-following capability to account for wind variability, and (c) allocating more regulation capacity. These are referred to as “ancillary service” costs, and are based on the physical system and operating characteristics and procedures. This topic is covered in more detail by Zavadil et al. [4].

In a paper recently published on line on September 28,2005 in "Contemporary Aesthetics", Jon Boone responds to Yuriko Saito's "Machines in the Ocean: The Aesthetics of Wind Farms" by arguing that Saito's search for the right aesthetic justification for windplants sited in the ocean (as well as on shore) is predicated on a false assumption, i.e. that industrial wind power is both benign and effective.