Quotes
Paul Gaynor, President UPC/First Wind
I know there was an expectation [in Mars Hill] about what these were going to sound like. These are big structures and they do make sound.
Peter McGauran
They [industrial wind plants] make no economic sense and the cost is passed on to the consumer or taxpayer. If they are to proceed it can only be done where they don't do any damage.
Peter McGauran
Wind farms don't live up to the hype that they are an environmental saviour and a serious alternate energy source and the effect they can have on their neighbours are so serious it means they should not be allowed to get away with the exaggerated claims, their claims are fraudulent.
Peter McGauran
WIND farms are a "complete fraud'' that "only exist on taxpayer subsidies''.
Phil Carvalho, owner of Beaumont Wind
Beaumont Wind no longer recommends wind turbines for its residential customers because the economics don't support it. You have to go too high and spend too much money to get power. A more cost-effective turbine would have to be about 205 feet, and require a one-year wind study. We feel solar is better for residents.
Philip Stott
There is also the need to overcome outdated perceptions about different forms of energy, such as “coal is dirty”, “nuclear power is unsafe” and wind and wave can “save the world” (without doing any environmental damage). These perceptions are political bunkum, and it is depressing to see the Liberal Democrats, and even the Conservatives, pandering to such misinformation for cheap gain.
Professor Saiful Islam
If we don’t develop an efficient way of storing energy from renewable sources like wind and solar power, then it will be the equivalent of a water company only supplying tap water when it’s raining.
Ralph Matthes, Executive Director of the Major Electricity Users' Group (MEUG)
Yesterday the Te Apiti wind farm had peak generation of approximately 30 MW. Installed wind turbine capacity at Te Apiti is 90 MW. Average wind generation for the whole day from Te Apiti was approximately 12 MW. Just when we need as much supply as possible to cover known outages and hence put pressure on spot prices, wind has been missing.
Rene Taylor
The idea of Green Credits is akin to two pack a day smokers buying clean lung credits from non smokers! Unless we begin to curb our use, all these huge farms do is make us feel better about our gluttony.
Rep. Alan Mollohan
Heaven knows that West Virginia has always stepped up to the plate to
contribute to our nation's energy security. But we now have a
situation where speculators are staking claim to some of our most
scenic areas and erecting these monstrosities that produce little
energy and are made possible only by a tax credit.
Richard C. Hill
Good winds coincide with neither the heating nor air-conditioning season. Wind is a willy-nilly source of electricity, and as such is not very useful.
Rick Wiebe
This industry has always wrapped itself in the mantle of green power and has sought to use the environmental benefits of wind power as an excuse for not doing anything about the environmental harms it causes.
Robert Bryce, author and journalist
The problem is for the past year [T. Boone] Pickens has sold the Americans a bill of goods, this idea that wind power is going to save America and that it's going to reduce foreign oil imports and so on, it's just flat not true.
Robert M. MacIntosh
It's time for reality to replace ideology in energy policy
Robert M. MacIntosh
Wind Power's inadequacies are hidden by a veil of government subsidy and inadequate data on performance and cost
Ron Asche, President and CEO Nebraska Public Power District
It’s all very speculative at this time, but I believe these mandates will have huge impacts on low and moderate income families, and it could very well make us non competitive in the rest of the world.
Ron Dustin
They [wind energy developer] led us to believe we would get a
substantial amount of money from them by way of taxes and now they come
up with kind of a loophole in it, wanting to get some sort of an
exception.
Rose Bacon
If you lease, chances are one or more of your neighbors is going to have to deal with eminent domain. Now these are private, wind development companies, however, once they sell that power to a power purchaser, they can go to the energy commission and as in Butler County, in two weeks and a little bit of paper work...they had the power of eminent domain to go across adjacent landowners' property with power lines, with trenches, with no public hearing
Rose Marie Derk
People thought they'd get their electric bill reduced, but ours went up and we're getting nothing. I can't understand what anybody thought they'd get out of this. This company [FPL] came in, destroyed the top of the mountain and left us with it.
Russell Broadbent
For any energy source to be viable, it must be able to be produced on demand. The storage of electricity as a technology is still in its infancy. One of the major drawbacks to wind is its unpredictability as a power source and that it cannot be stored.