Wave of wind farms: Let's not destroy the state's environment in order to save it

A wind farm consisting of 20 turbines to be built in Adams Twp., Cambria County, was issued a permit last week by the Department of Environmental Protection, the latest in a wave of windmill projects spreading across the commonwealth.

The Highland Wind Farm project is being built by Everpower Renewables Corp. of New York City on a reclaimed strip mine, which may help account for the fact that it has generated little opposition, compared to other wind projects in the state and around the nation. A week earlier, the Adams Twp. supervisors approved a conditional use application for the windmills under the township's zoning ordinance. At a hearing in September, many residents expressed concern about the project, but none of the more than dozen people attending this month's meeting chose to speak. And DEP says it received no public comments on the permit application nor requests for a public meeting.

Wind proponents might wish that all such projects should have such an easy time of it.

But the fact is that while wind power is being promoted as an essential part of any credible response to climate change, it is increasingly being challenged and questioned, as indeed is the case with other so-called "renewable" forms of energy, such as corn-based ethanol.

Opposition to individual wind farm projects often stems from local concerns with loss of aesthetics, and worries about possible noise and radio interference from electromagnetic waves generated by the rotation of windmill blades. Other concerns include the killing of migratory birds, including raptors and songbirds, as well as bats, and the fragmentation of forests that can adversely affect the entire range of plants and animals. DEP, however, is empowered only to ensure that wind farms do not degrade water quality. Local zoning cannot exclude wind farms, it can only regulate them, which is surely better for the public than doing nothing.

There are those who concede that wind farms may raise some issues but argue that the threat posed by climate change and rising global temperatures is such that the other concerns pale in comparison. While I agree that global warming must be addressed, and urgently so, I remain unconvinced that the environment must be destroyed in order to save it. Too many presumptions are being made with regard to the environmental benefits of wind farms without the scientific evidence to back them up.

For example, the web site of Everpower Renewables (http: //www.everpower.com/highland.html) says that phase I of its Highland Wind Farm will "offset" emissions of carbon dioxide, the chief gas responsible for global warming, by nearly 400,000 tons per year. This is misleading in several respects, however.

First, it doesn't account for the carbon emissions involved in the manufacture, transportation and construction of the wind farm, including eight miles of 15-foot gravel roads. Second, it doesn't account for the loss of carbon from clearing 43 acres (from a 4,371-acre property), as well as the eight miles of service roads. Third, "offset" suggests the power generated by the windmills will reduce the amount of power generated from carbon-producing fossil fuels.IN FACT, the Energy Information Agency in the Department of Energy projected in 2006 that the generation of electricity will grow an average of 1.6 percent a year between now and 2030, most of which will be generated by conventional means. Without an energy conservation initiative on a par with efforts to encourage renewables, we will almost certainly continue to see higher emissions of CO2.

In addition, a National Research Council study released this year entitled "Environmental Effects of Wind Energy Projects," concluded that based on the expected maximum number of windmills to be built, wind would offset total expected higher carbon emissions by no more that 2.25 percent.

Is that a difference worth allowing the ridge tops of Pennsylvania to be dotted with giant industrial-sized windmills?

HERB FIELD is a Patriot-News editorial writer: 255-8441 or hfield@patriot-news.com.