Today begins the third month of Allegheny Treasures – Happy Anniversary to us!!!

If you’ll indulge me on this “milestone” day, I’d like to spend a few moments answering a question I’ve been asked on a couple of occasions – why bother?  If you have a problem with industrial wind coming to the high ridges of the Allegheny front, why don’t you just send a letter to the editor?  You know you can send a letter to the WV Public Service Commission, don’t you?

Well, I did both.  The letter to the PSC was duly recorded and tossed in with several others. Some were for and some against and a fair number came from people who don’t live within easy driving distance, but felt compelled to tell the Public Service Commission what a great idea it is to put the wind plant in our neighborhood.  And that’s fine, everyone should have a point of view.

And that is all Allegheny Treasures is intended to be – a place to present a point of view.  My experience is, unless you’re employed by the newspaper with access to the ink and the authority to place the articles you choose, writing a letter every thirty days may not be enough to present your point of view.  It’s not nearly enough when you consider the money, organization and political push on the wind side.  It’s tough to get attention over here, except for the occasional note of displeasure expressed by writers implying you’re just a backward thinking NIMBY, trying to stop jobs and increased tax revenue.

Well, there’s a much larger story to tell and frankly, the newspapers aren’t telling it.  I don’t know why – it’s all out there.  I agree that industrial wind, unless you simply repeat everything the developer provides, is a complicated issue.  It takes a lot of reading and digging and linking and more digging to get at the real story and the local news folks may not have the time, or in some cases, the inclination to go to that depth.  The AWEA and the LLCs developing wind projects pump out the printed material and canned speeches making it easy to process that point of view.  To get to the other information is an effort.

On September 28, 2009, after much frustration at the lack of information in my local papers I started my education.  My respect for the reasonable, respectful and dedicated individuals trying to create dialogue has only grown.  They have participated, contributed and guided my little adventure and the supply of material available to me is mind boggling.  I am amazed at the number of truly professional and dedicated individuals living on the “dark side” of the industrial wind issue.

My disappointment came from the realization that others, publicly portraying an interest in real energy solutions, seem to dismiss these educated arguments for the slick and glossy presentations of the industrial wind business and their enablers.

I was told some time back that the reason so many articles represented the side of the wind developers was that the “other” side did not provide information.  Well, I guess reporters haven’t been able to find this little blog, or the hundreds of others in existence far longer than mine that present the negative side of the industrial wind juggernaut.  I hope the lack of interest is not a result of the type of reporting one local editor spoke of when describing a sports report – “FROM STAFF REPORTS,” which is “newspaper-speak” for either listening to the game on the radio or having a coach calling it in ...”  “Phoning it in” would be unfortunate for the community which relies on a balanced presentation of facts.

So, thank you to the folks who mentored, corrected and educated me.  For those who drop and do not agree with the conclusions, please do disagree.  That’s how we learn.  Your comments will be published just as those coming from folks who do happen to agree.

For members of the press who happen to drop by Allegheny Treasures, you’ll find I make every attempt to embed links and supply references to materials I comment on and, should you find an item of interest, you’re welcome to use any and all.  Everything you see here came from people a lot smarter than I am.

Finally, for any members of the press who choose simply let this issue drift to conclusion without question I can only say – you’re the reason I bother.

We make every effort to be accurate.  Should you find an error, omission or broken link, please notify me in the comment section.  Corrections will be made as quickly possible.