Actions of wind developers cause mistrust
Watertown Daily Times|Rollin Hanson |August 30, 2007
...All this, and the promise of quick money, effectively silences all voices of reason in the debate that will bring the most drastic change some communities will ever experience. Why? Because wind companies know that their shining green (dollars) exterior is simply a facade which quickly unravels upon critical examination.
...All this, and the promise of quick money, effectively silences all voices of reason in the debate that will bring the most drastic change some communities will ever experience. Why? Because wind companies know that their shining green (dollars) exterior is simply a facade which quickly unravels upon critical examination.
Actions of wind developers cause mistrust
The wind power debate has spread over the north country as communities struggle with the question, Is wind power good or bad? For answers one needs to start at the source, the wind energy developers. Examine their actions, not their propaganda.
If wind energy is the panacea for communities and the nation's energy woes as developers claim, why do some restrain leaseholders from speaking negatively about their wind farms? Why do they sneak into communities, targeting low-income areas, putting land under contract before citizens have a chance to determine if this is positive for all the community?
Why is it necessary for the American Wind Energy Association, America's wind energy lobbyists, to …
... more [truncated due to possible copyright]Actions of wind developers cause mistrust
The wind power debate has spread over the north country as communities struggle with the question, Is wind power good or bad? For answers one needs to start at the source, the wind energy developers. Examine their actions, not their propaganda.
If wind energy is the panacea for communities and the nation's energy woes as developers claim, why do some restrain leaseholders from speaking negatively about their wind farms? Why do they sneak into communities, targeting low-income areas, putting land under contract before citizens have a chance to determine if this is positive for all the community?
Why is it necessary for the American Wind Energy Association, America's wind energy lobbyists, to produce documents for developers discussing ways to get around the opposition? With wind energy's so-called positives, there should be no need for such underhandedness.
Why do developers act in concert with municipal officials who have conflicts of interest with the company, then sit quietly as town officials act unethically or illegally? Why is it necessary for wind developers to distort wind energy facts to paint an artificially positive picture, while marginalizing its problems and pitfalls?
Why do they obviously distort visual simulations to falsify the impact? Why do wind companies trivialize the environmental impacts of wind complexes? In Cape Vincent, the draft environmental statement by St. Lawrence Wind is so badly done the New York Public Service Commission recommended they start the whole process over.
Why do wind companies repeatedly harass landowners who want no part in the wind complex? If wind energy is so wonderful, why must the taxpayer shoulder the burden with significant tax subsidies to make it viable? Because without emptying taxpayers pockets, wind energy can't compete.
Worst of all, why do wind developers destroy the social fabric of virtually every community they touch? Before wind ever passes through the blades, neighbors on opposing sides won't talk, families get torn apart, businesses live in fear of saying anything and losing customers. All this, and the promise of quick money, effectively silences all voices of reason in the debate that will bring the most drastic change some communities will ever experience. Why? Because wind companies know that their shining green (dollars) exterior is simply a facade which quickly unravels upon critical examination.
Rollin Hanson
Cape Vincent