Opinions
Category:
General or Impact on Wildlife
Browse in :
All
> Topics
> General (2131)
All > Topics > Impact on Wildlife (302)
All of these categories
All > Topics > Impact on Wildlife (302)
All of these categories
Energy rates continue to climb. Xcel customers have endured a 21 percent rate increase over the last six years with another 20 predicted over the next six, thus reducing consumers' purchasing power. Continuing the trend of budget shortfall, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities projects Colorado's 2012 budget shortfall to be $450 million, 6.2 percent of the state's general fund.
Eolian has yet to produce a single watt of electricity anywhere. They admit to "not having done a good enough job" of clearly presenting their project to the town. Two of their mailings "overlooked" dozens of residents who live around Mt. Waldo and would be most affected by these massive 450-foot turbines. Heck, they can't even get the name of the local store right.
It was pretty clear all along that building a wind farm in the waters of Lake Erie or Lake Ontario would be way too expensive.
What we didn't know until last week was that it wouldn't just be way too expensive: It would have been a boondoggle of epic proportions.
Vermont's proud history of leadership in developing innovative, effective environmental protection is being tossed aside. This project will set an ominous precedent by ripping apart a healthy, intact ecosystem in the guise of doing something about climate change. In return, Green Mountain Power will receive $44 million in federal production tax credits ...The pursuit of large-scale, ridgeline wind power in Vermont represents a profound failure to understand the value of our landscape to our souls and our economic future in Vermont.
If the criteria were objective or the environmental protection standards were consistent, then either the towers would have to go or the cross could clearly stay ...Instead Vermont has created a regulatory climate in which the aesthetic impact of a project is decided by political favor.
A decommissioning plan needs to be included in the revised county ordinance to protect the property owners and the county in the event that the wind company breaches its contract and abandons the wind farm, leaving the mess and the liability with the residents of Lee County.
"There is no evidence that DDT harmed eagles in any way, but we know windmills actually do harm the eagles -- and environmentalists are all bent out of shape about endangered species status of eagles," says Milloy. "Well, those big Cuisinarts in the sky -- they seem to be whacking a lot of eagles."
Letter inflated wind power's positives while ignoring negatives
September 22, 2011 in The Times Record
September 22, 2011 in The Times Record
I was disturbed, but not surprised, to read Rep. Stacey Fitts' letter in the Sept. 14 edition of The Times Record.
Mr. Fitts wrote, "Wind power has been a real boost to Maine's economy: $1 billion of investment..."
No matter how high-minded, well-intentioned or politically correct wind power is, the siting of such a massive, commercial turbine on this historic property is legally and morally wrong, and a gross misuse of invaluable, limited shoreline open space in the small and dense city of Salem.
Clearly the turbine is too high, too wide, too loud and too dangerous for this small island park.
Also filed under [
General|
Massachusetts]
The homeowners who are expected to host the power lines do not wish them, nor the access road. The homeowners and business owners of Ferndale just showed they don't want the project either.
Shell Oil representatives went around to the media pitching their deal. Why? Because they know they don't have community support in Ferndale nor much support in Rio Dell.
Also filed under [
General|
California]
Robert Bryce notes for National Review Online that on an "unspeakably hot" Aug. 24 in Texas, 10,135 megawatts of wind-generation capacity supplied just 880 megawatts of power "when electricity was needed the most" -- in the afternoon, when wind subsides while heat and electricity demand rise.
Without Kessel, the offshore wind farm's leading advocate, to shepherd it through the Power Authority, the project quickly lost momentum, just like a spinning turbine when the wind suddenly turns calm. And there were plenty of forces pushing against the project.
Leaving aside the questionable economics, inefficiency and massive tax subsidies required to induce investment in wind turbines, there are several other concrete -- and local -- reasons why the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors should vote against an ordinance allowing and encouraging industrial-scale wind turbines.
Wind farms: the monuments to lunacy that will be left to blot the landscape
September 10, 2011 in Telegraph.co.uk
September 10, 2011 in Telegraph.co.uk
Alas, despite all the practical evidence to show why wind power is one of the greatest follies of our age, those who rule our lives, from our own politicians and officials here in Britain to those above them in Brussels, seem quite impervious to the facts.
Some of you may be aware that the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin appointed a committee of experts to create statewide wind siting rules, but may not know the majority of that committee benefits financially from the wind industry.
In 2010, Town Meeting eliminated the need for a special permit for turbine construction, along with legally required notification of immediate abutters, and the holding of public hearings. The amended bylaw essentially makes it easier for turbine construction in locations that residents would likely oppose, namely, close to their homes.
Also filed under [
General|
Massachusetts]
The gigantic public investments in green energy may be stimulating innovation and helping the environment. But they are not evidence that the government knows how to create private-sector jobs. ...There's a wealth of other evidence to suggest that the green economy will not be a short-term jobs machine.
Wind energy promoters and enablers are finally waking up to the possibility that the public knows there may be adverse effects from wind power.
That puts them about 25 years behind the rest of the country, at least that part of the country that does not fall to its knees when the word "green" is attached to a concept, no matter how inaccurately.
Also filed under [
General|
Washington]
The state is spending billions on projects that focus on wind energy rather than on conventional generation capacity. Consumers will soon be paying for new transmission lines that are being built solely so that the subsidy-dependent wind-energy profiteers can move electricity ...Further, consider what might be happening had the state kept the $6.79 billion it's now spending on wind-energy transmission lines and instead allocated it to new natural-gas-fired generators.
Also filed under [
General|
California]