PILOT enabling wind power development
Watertown Daily Times|David LaMora|October 14, 2009
There is considerable data now available to anyone with an open mind and objective perspective that clearly shows industrial wind generation has severe limitations as an efficient alternative-energy source. The experiments in many European nations as well as those in operation in the U.S. and now also including the Wolfe Island project which dramatically impacts this region can only boast at best a 20 percent to 25 percent rate of production.
There is considerable data now available to anyone with an open mind and objective perspective that clearly shows industrial wind generation has severe limitations as an efficient alternative-energy source. The experiments in many European nations as well as those in operation in the U.S. and now also including the Wolfe Island project which dramatically impacts this region can only boast at best a 20 percent to 25 percent rate of production.
I would like to state up front I am opposed to industrial-scale wind development in rural residential areas, especially ones such as the Thousand Islands and Great Lakes where the unrivaled scenic beauty and quality of life are an essential part of the economy and an integral component of the environment.
There is considerable data now available to anyone with an open mind and objective perspective that clearly shows industrial wind generation has severe limitations as an efficient alternative-energy source. The experiments in many European nations as well as those in operation in the U.S. and now also including the Wolfe Island project which dramatically impacts this region can only boast at best a 20 percent to 25 percent rate of …
... more [truncated due to possible copyright]I would like to state up front I am opposed to industrial-scale wind development in rural residential areas, especially ones such as the Thousand Islands and Great Lakes where the unrivaled scenic beauty and quality of life are an essential part of the economy and an integral component of the environment.
There is considerable data now available to anyone with an open mind and objective perspective that clearly shows industrial wind generation has severe limitations as an efficient alternative-energy source. The experiments in many European nations as well as those in operation in the U.S. and now also including the Wolfe Island project which dramatically impacts this region can only boast at best a 20 percent to 25 percent rate of production.
This is not hearsay. It is information readily available from the wind industry - they do not dispute it. There is no other industry, whether it be energy generation, manufacturing of any kind, farming, construction, education, any business in general, even advertising, that would tolerate a production rate as low as this.
The only way the wind industry can survive is with substantial government subsidies and tax exemptions which come at great cost to the taxpayers. It would be irresponsible for Jefferson County legislators to prematurely approve a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement created by the Jefferson County Industrial Development Agency for the sole purpose of allowing the Galloo Island wind project access to federal stimulus funds. Legislators must give due consideration of limitations and negative impacts this project and others proposed for this county will subject the residents and taxpayers to.
Offering this PILOT is a tacit endorsement of wind development and will be all but impossible to deny to any subsequent applicants. The unresolved controversy that engulfs industrial wind development at every level, including its questionable significance to solving global warming, its obvious failing as a self-sustaining industry, the growing mountain of evidence of harmful impacts, and the totally unacceptable ethical practices of not only the individual developers, but also the many local government officials promoting it, hardly suggest that it warrants this sort of preferential treatment.
Your city editor, Perry White, warned the residents of Cape Vincent and neighboring communities to look beyond the money when considering wind development. It seems he should have addressed the county legislators as well.