The pro-wind side professes that "we need to destroy our environment, to save our environment!" On the surface, this may seem the more responsible alternative. But I think the next question that needs to be posed is, what are we hoping to accomplish in strip-mining our mountains?

When the look, feel and aesthetic value of a landscape is to be altered in a permanent and extremely visible way there must be room for emotion. To confine the regulatory consideration only to the mechanics of access roads, lease terms and transmission lines misses an essential community value; that is, our view of place is often shaped by its visual impact.

Because of ever increasing awareness of the negative consequences of locating turbines near residential areas, many bodies with more experience in turbine siting have been applying increasingly stringent standards. For example, see the February 2011 standards adopted by the Planning and Regulatory Sub-committee of the Cape Cod Commission.

Horizon's representative, Robert Yehl, claimed the company would improve local roads before, during and after construction of the wind farm. ...Baloney! Roads were in terrible shape during construction of the original wind farm. And they are in worse shape now than before.

I view with dismay how your counties of the South West are being ravaged by the desire of others for you to solve the world's climate change problems.I am not surprised that the wind farm development at Fullabrook Down in North Devon was passed. Cornwall has been an easy target for developers and now, with government blessing, the race is on to ruin Devon. ...One problem for our ministers, planners and inspectors is that unless they take the time to do independent research, the technical data they are presented with will have been supplied either directly by the British Wind Energy Association or an agency which gets it from the same source. While the public begins to wise up to wind power the Government still sees what it wants to.

An objective analysis of windmills as even a partial solution to our energy needs just isn't cutting it. The numbers just don't add up. It maybe time to use the old adage, "Liars can figure, but figures don't lie". Obviously, the American Wind Energy Association is a powerful lobby taking us in a direction that will only result in that warm and fuzzy feeling, but our lights may not come on. From the Rocky Mountains to Texas to Maine people are finally beginning to question the logic and effectiveness of wind energy.

Why Illuzzi thinks that wind energy will "avoid cutting wide swaths through our...countryside..." is beyond me. The footprint for wind is huge.