Maine Industrial Wind: Citizens Task Force on Wind Power calls for moratorium.

Posted on February 20, 2010 by morgan

From Mainebiz Online:  Wind foes call for statewide moratorium

A group opposed to wind power development is asking the governor to temporarily halt all wind farm construction in Maine.

Citizens’ Task Force on Wind Power held a press conference this morning outside Gov. John Baldacci’s office calling for an executive order for a moratorium on permitting and construction of industrial wind projects in Maine until the state revises its noise regulations, according to a press release from the group. The task force expressed concern about health effects from the low-frequency noise emitted by wind turbines, citing complaints from residents near wind farms in Freedom, Mars Hill and Vinalhaven. The group also opposes the state’s streamlined process for permitting wind farms, which was passed by the Legislature in 2008.

Earlier this month, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court heard testimony from another group opposing the proposed Rollins Wind farm in the Lincoln area, who said the new state law ignores evidence about potential side effects from the noise generated by large wind farms, according to the Portland Press Herald. Opponents in that case want the Maine Department of Environmental Protection to revise noise regulations based on new evidence.

Article ends!

AT Note:  You can reach the Citizens’ Task Force on Wind Power – Maine at the highlighted text.

Posted in Friends and Citizens Groups | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Greek conservation groups dismay with industrial wind intrusion, mirrors The Charter of Palermo

Posted on February 19, 2010 by morgan

In a recent post here at Allegheny Treasures we spoke of Mr. Jon Boone’s 2009 participation in the development of The Charter of Palermo.  Readers may recall that, at the invitation of the Sicilian government, Mr. Boone, an intervenor in two MDPSC wind hearings and author of many publications about wind technology, joined more than thirty other speakers from Italy, Spain, Germany, France, and Britain to present at an  international industrial wind conference entitled, “The Landscape Under Attack.”

The conference’s keynote speaker, Valery Giscard d’ Estaing, former president of France, called for strong measures throughout Europe to protect the continent’s essential cultural landscape heritage. He was followed by Raffaelo Lombardo, Sicily’s president, who vowed to keep his region safe from what a prominent Sicilian journalist, in the conference’s wake, called the “leprosy of wind.” Carlo Ripa di Meana, former Italian minister of the environment and current president of Italia Nostra, the oldest and most influential Italian conservation organization, organized the event and served as its host.  Other speakers included leaders from Italy’s nature and conservation groups, politicians such as the mayor of Salemi, a small town in southwestern Sicily, and energy experts from the University of Rome.

On the first day, Boone gave a lecture entitled, Wind Technology is Overblown, in which he demonstrated that wind can only provide supplementary energy (not power), which itself requires a lot of supplementation, in the process subverting the technology’s ability to offset meaningful levels of greenhouse gas emissions. The next day, he showed his documentary, Life Under a Windplant, which he made as part of his MDPSC testimony. All presentations were translated simultaneously in English and Italian.

The conference concluded with a Charter, a statement of purpose, which called for an immediate moratorium on wind development, a thorough examination of its costs and benefits, and protection in perpetuity for the landscape’s cultural heritage.

In today’s ever vigilant National Wind Watch, they posted a small article from the English edition of Athens based Kathimerini online.  The article, “Wind farms bill stirs up conservationists” is very significant in that it speaks of the objections raised by 174 conservation groups against a draft bill facilitating the construction of wind farms were aired at a press conference in Athens yesterday.

The article continues: “If this bill passes in its current form, we will see wind parks in national parks,” said Martinos Gaetlich of the Hellenic Society for the Protection of the Environment and Cultural Heritage. The society says the draft bill does not consider the fact that the country’s islands have very sensitive ecosystems. Those opposed to the bill are also concerned about infrastructure – roads, power lines etc – that would accompany the construction of wind farms. “If we want to turn our mountains into factories, then we can forget about biodiversity,” said Stavros Xirouhakis of the Natural History Museum of Crete.

AT NOTE:  The significant growth of industrial wind and its intrusion into the culture and environment of Europe should not be lost on the United States.  The push for rapid deployment of these huge and ineffective machines to achieve artificial political goals in the US is putting the environment, wildlife and our personal bank accounts in jeopardy, with little to show for the disruption.

Mr. Boone’s presentation and The Charter of Palermo are repeated here for your convenience:

Mr. Boone’s speech – Wind Energy is Overblown – as presented in Palermo in 2009, is provided for your convenience. A slide presentation to accompany the speech can be found immediately following the text.  The red numbers in the text correspond to slide numbers. You can download a text version without numbers here.:

Mr. Boone’s slide presentation which accompanied his remarks (modified to fit presentation format):

The resulting Charter of Palermo:

Posted in Europe industrial wind, Jon Boone | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Oh, darn … another legislator can’t seem to find the jobs industrial wind promised!

Posted on February 19, 2010 by morgan

From the West Salem, Wisconsin Coulee News:

Published – Thursday, February 18, 2010

PLAIN SPEAKING: Green jobs deal yields zero jobs

By MIKE HUEBSCH

In 2008, the wind energy industry employed 85,000 American workers. After collecting nearly $2 billion of federal stimulus funding in 2009, it still provides 85,000 jobs according the America Wind Energy Association.

Without taxpayer subsidies in 2008, the industry added 13,000 jobs. With the subsidies last year, the industry lost 1,500 to 2,000 manufacturing jobs and replaced them with temporary construction jobs that last an average of nine months and a handful of maintenance positions.

None of that has stopped Madison Democrats from pushing Gov. Jim Doyle’s Global Warming Bill as a way to create Wisconsin jobs. The bill requires electric consumers to pay $16.2 billion to build wind farms and meet a mandate of 25 percent renewable power in Wisconsin.

The Doyle Administration’s own analysis indicates that only 2,000 of the 15,000 jobs promised by the governor are permanent. About 12,000 are temporary construction positions that will come and go over a 15-year period. The only independent cost-benefit analysis completed to date estimates that 43,000 existing jobs will be lost if the bill becomes law.

While President Obama’s “green collar jobs” scheme has done little for our economy or the record number of Americans out of a work, it’s been a boon for Europe and Asia. At least 6,000 new jobs have been created overseas by foreign firms that pocketed 79 percent of the $2.2 billion of American taxpayer subsidies, according to the Investigative Reporting Workshop at the American University School of Communication.

Of the $2.2 billion spent through 2009, a total of $1.9 billion has been funneled to wind energy projects. Foreign companies received $1.6 billion to build wind farms while five U.S. companies received a combined $290.7 million.

Further subsidizing Europe’s already heavily subsidized green energy industry isn’t just creating jobs there, it’s killing jobs here. Several U.S. wind-turbine companies announced layoffs in 2009, including plants in Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Nebraska. Spanish manufacturer Gamesa, which is currently providing turbines for projects here, laid off 100 Pennsylvania workers last year. The Danish company Vestes halted production at a Colorado wind turbine blade plant last year.

President Obama promised 17,000 green jobs, primarily in the wind energy industry. Last year, 10,000 megawatts of new wind generation came online — enough to power 2.4 million homes — and taxpayers bankrolled nearly $2 billion of subsidies. We don’t have a single new job to show for it.

The American Wind Energy Association now says that providing subsidies for renewable energy projects was never a long-term jobs policy.

U.S. taxpayers spent $1.05 billion on renewable energy projects in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2009. Another $3.08 billion will be spent by Sept. 30 of this year, and the program is set to peak at $4.46 billion in 2011. That’s a big thing to ask of taxpayers for a program that isn’t a long-term jobs policy when the national unemployment rate hovers at 10 percent and 8.4 million Americans have lost their jobs since the recession began.

Doyle’s bill will do irreparable harm to Wisconsin’s economy and, based on what we’ve learned from Obama’s failed stimulus program, it will drive manufacturing jobs to other states and, more likely, other countries. We don’t need a year of watching jobs leave Wisconsin to know that the governor’s bill was never really a long-term jobs policy.

State Rep. Mike Huebsch, R-West Salem, represents the 94th District in the Wisconsin Assembly.

Posted in Wind Energy Shenanigans, Wind Power subsidies | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Baltimore Sun: Maine residents turning against industrial wind they once welcomed.

Posted on February 18, 2010 by morgan

From the Baltimore Sun’s B’more Green Blog:

Bad vibes over wind energy in Maine

Wind energy is generating some bad vibes in Maine, it seems, where some residents of an offshore village have turned against the industrial-sized turbines they originally welcomed on their island.

As reported recently in the Portland Press-Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram, some island residents who celebrated the startup in November of three wind turbines say their sleep and peace of mind have since been disturbed by the “whump whump” sounds or vibrations emitted by the large, rotating blades. Some liken the sound to whooshing or grinding, or to an airplane that never lands. The sounds seem to vary with the wind intensity and direction, and with the distance from the turbines. Those living closeest appear to get the brunt of it.  Here’s a link to another site where residents discuss their experiences in detail.

The developer of the $15 million Fox Islands wind project is reported to be taking steps to try to remedy the situation.  As reported in this other story, the turbine operators are experimenting with slowing the blades down, to see if that reduces the complaints.

Many in the community still support the project, but this situation and similar complaints raised in a couple other Maine communities with large wind turbines are fueling  pressure to change state standards for wind farms to limit the relatively low-frequency sounds that are upsetting nearby residents.

As wind turbines proliferate across the landscape and belatedly make their way into Maryland, the Maine situation does raise questions.  Are local communities in this state taking turbine sounds into account in determining setbacks and other rules for locating wind facilities in their midst? Or is this an operational problem that turbine operators can easily remedy? Even if so, are there local or state sound regulations that could be applied to ensure industrial-sized wind turbines’ peaceful coexistence with the communities they’re being built to serve?

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:20 AM

Posted in Industrial Wind Health Issues, wind turbine noise | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

CBC News: “Northern New Brunswick’s cold, icy weather is causing wind turbines to freeze and stop producing power.”

Posted on February 18, 2010 by morgan

And they planned for this?

From CBC News:  Ice halts northern N.B. wind farm

“We have budgeted allowances for every year for possible generation interruptions like this caused by something like severe weather,” (Dani Sabota, a spokesperson for GDF Suez Energy North America, the company that owns the park) Sabota said.

“We’re still OK, but we believe — we hope — this year’s severe icing was an anomaly.”

They also hope the mild weather in the forecast will melt the ice and that there will be enough wind to get the windmills moving again.

“The new wind farm’s 33 turbines have been generating power since November, but they have been forced to shut down for the past two days due to ice forming on some of the blades.  The wind farm has been battling ice problems all winter.”

Read entire article here:  Ice halts northern N.B. wind farm

Posted in industrial wind failure | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Industrial wind developer Avista delays Washington State project to 2014 “citing the high costs associated with harnessing energy from the wind.”

Posted on February 18, 2010 by morgan

From the Seattle Times:

Avista pushes back Reardan wind farm construction

Avista will delay construction of a 50-turbine wind farm near Reardan, Lincoln County, until at least 2014, citing the high costs associated with harnessing energy from the wind.

By Becky Kramer

The Spokesman-Review

Avista will delay construction of a 50-turbine wind farm near Reardan, Lincoln County, until at least 2014, citing the high costs associated with harnessing energy from the wind.

Avista had planned to have the farm operating in 2013 so it could qualify for federal and state tax credits, but officials now say the electricity won’t be needed for several more years. This is the second delay for the project, which was first announced in 2008.

“It really doesn’t pencil out at this time,” said Hugh Imhof, a spokesman for the Spokane-based utility. “We thought it would be more prudent to wait until we need the electricity, or the renewable energy credits, and do it then.”

In 2006, Washington voters passed a law requiring utilities to get 15 percent of their future power supplies from non-carbon-emitting sources, such as wind, solar and hydropower.

The wind turbines — slated for a gusty ridge five miles south of Reardan — are part of Avista’s plan to meet those standards. In the short-term, however, the utility can meet the standards by retrofitting turbines at Avista’s two dams on the Clark Fork River and buying renewable energy credits on the market, Imhof said.

Ongoing upgrades of the turbines at the Noxon Rapids and Cabinet Gorge dams will cost $46 million and boost the dams’ electrical output by 38 megawatts, which is enough power for 28,500 homes. Imhof said the dams’ increased output qualifies as new, renewable energy, and it comes at less than half the cost of installing wind turbines in Reardan.

Building the wind farm will cost $109 million to $196 million. The wind farm is being planned with a generating capacity of 50 to 90 megawatts, which is enough electricity for 37,500 to 67,500 homes. However, wind farms generally run at one-third of their capacity because the wind doesn’t always blow.

The wind project would be Avista’s first, though the utility has been buying credits from a wind farm on the Oregon-Washington border for several years.

Posted in industrial wind cost | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!!! New York Municipalities suing Flat Rock Windpower for $6.7 Million annual payment.

Posted on February 18, 2010 by morgan

Yeah, I know … not exactly a huge shock, is it?

Here’s the story courtesy of National Wind Watch:

Municipalities countersue wind farm

Credit: By STEVE VIRKLER, TIMES STAFF WRITER, Watertown Daily Times, www.watertowndailytimes.com 18 February 2010

LOWVILLE — Maple Ridge Wind Farm municipalities are countersuing the wind company, claiming it is in default for failure to make its full annual payment in December.

“Plaintiff has no valid excuse or defense for its failure to pay,” states a recent legal filing from Kevin R. McAuliffe and David G. Burch of Syracuse law firm Hiscock & Barclay.

The firm is representing the involved taxing jurisdictions — Lewis County, the towns of Martinsburg, Harrisburg, Lowville and Watson and the Lowville, Copenhagen and South Lewis school districts — in a state Supreme Court lawsuit filed in late December by Flat Rock Windpower, the company under which the 195-turbine wind farm was developed.

The municipalities’ counterclaim asks the judge to dismiss the complaint, declare that Flat Rock was not entitled to make a lesser payment and is, therefore, in default of its 15-year payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement and order the payment of $6.7 million plus interest, penalties and legal fees.

Lewis County Attorney Richard J. Graham earlier this month sent a notice of default to the company, according to legal filings.

Flat Rock was billed in December for an $8.99 million annual payment but paid only $2.29 million and filed a lawsuit to justify the payment. Flat Rock claims it should pay only the so-called “fallback amount,” since it was decertified in June from the state Empire Zone program.

The company is appealing the state ruling but also seeking court approval of its PILOT interpretation, just in case its appeal is denied.

The attorneys for the municipalities dispute Flat Rock’s interpretation of the PILOT agreement.

They state that the fallback clause should only be invoked if the company’s property tax credits were “eliminated, reduced or capped through a change in law or regulation, but not as a result of Flat Rock’s failure to comply with the requirement of the Empire Zone Act.” That section of the PILOT specifically refers to Section 15 of state Tax Law, which has not been amended since Dec. 1, 2007, the counterclaim adds.

The filing also lays out a number of legal defenses the municipalities may employ, including failure to state a cause of action or act in good faith.

According to the Flat Rock lawsuit, the company has put $6.7 million into an escrow account with U.S. Bank that will be given to local taxing jurisdictions upon Empire Zone recertification.

The countersuit refers to the escrow as “an entirely self-serving act that allegedly permitted the Plaintiff to claim a tax deduction for the amount of deposit, but at the same time, deprived the Defendants of the benefits of the monies deposited.”

Flat Rock was one of 363 businesses that appealed their zone decertifications statewide. So far, the state Empire Zone Designation Board has recertified 10 companies and upheld the decertification of 93.

The board is slated to meet again at 9 a.m. Friday in Albany, but there is no indication which appeals will be acted upon.

Most of the companies awaiting decision on their appeals — including Flat Rock — were targeted as “shirt-changers,” or companies reincorporated as different entities that claimed they created jobs when, in reality, they transferred employees from one entity to the other.

While Flat Rock doesn’t seem to fit that definition, it was apparently lumped into the category based on the company’s response to a question in its 2006 financial report to Empire State Development, Mr. Graham has said.

Posted in Wind Energy Shenanigans | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

‘Industrial wind’ helps corporations, not taxpayers

Posted on February 17, 2010 by morgan

Mineral Daily News-Tribune

Wed Feb 17, 2010, 12:35 PM EST

Keyser, W.Va. –

‘Industrial wind’ helps corporations, not taxpayers


To the Editor:

We are about to throw away $131 million dollars on a wind  farm in Mineral County.  I say we, since much of the money for this  project will come from our tax dollars. (To date, subsidies—read “our  tax dollars”—for industrial wind exceed $100 billion.)  Sadly, all  this money has done nothing to reduce our carbon footprint or the toxic elements released by coal burning.  And it sure doesn’t reduce our dependence on foreign oil.  What’s going on?  Why is our money being wasted this way?

First, we need to understand the single greatest problem with industrial wind–it’s intermittent.  Wind varies so much that power companies must keep their coal-fired boilers operating at 50 percent in  order to instantly supply needed power when the wind drops, at which time, more pulverized coal is added to increase the  boiler temperature.

So whether the wind blows or not, the coal is burning,  adding more bad stuff to our atmosphere, stuff like mercury, a neurotoxin, and carbon dioxide.

The industrial wind people proclaim that their turbines reduce coal burning, but they offer no evidence.  Unfortunately, West Virginia doesn’t require wind companies to offer scientific proof that  what they say is true, and I’ve never read that any wind company anywhere has done so.  Could it be there is no proof?  That what they say is a sham?

Don’t forget, wind companies lie to us right from the start when they tell us how much electricity their turbines will produce.   They always state the maximum rated capacity, which is never achieved, has  never been achieved in the real world, and never will be achieved.  The national average for what wind turbines produce is around 28 percent, and it’s unlikely turbines on the Allegheny Front get close to even that low level.  But of course, wind companies hide the actual figures so that we, who are financing these projects with our tax dollars, can’t make a rational assessment.

Who’s benefiting from these wind farms?  Basically, as Tom Stacy of  “Save Western Ohio” says, “…it’s a greedy tax avoidance scheme for large corporations to increase their bottom lines at our expense…. [and] it makes our energy situation worse, and our pocket books much  lighter.”

Greed triumphs once again.  Money before people or the planet.

Mineral County has roughly 13,000 homes.  With $131 million, we could give approximately half the homes in the county a basic solar system that would, in fact, reduce our carbon footprint and save  people money.

At the same time, we would create good-paying jobs for the long term, keeping the money in our area.

Many benefits would accrue.

Unfortunately, people like Senators Byrd and Rockefeller and Congressman Mollohan—and most of their colleagues in the Congress—don’t really care about us, don’t really care about how we’re being  ripped off by industrial wind.  They only care about the next election.  Do you think the industrial wind lobby might be contributing to campaign coffers?

However, forces are moving in the county to stop this dreadful waste of our money.

But those forces face a formidable foe with big pockets.  Maybe, if enough of us cry out against this insanity, we can stop this wind farm.  Other communities are fighting back, and some have been successful.  Perhaps we can add to those successes. After all, it’s our money.

Craig Etchison
Fort Ashby

Posted in Concerned citizen letters, Mineral County WV, Save Western Ohio | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Not your average NIMBY – environmentally concerned citizen turns away from industrial wind.

Posted on February 17, 2010 by morgan

From the Thunder Bay, Ontario – Chronicle Journal:

When I first heard that industrial wind turbines were to be installed on the Nor‘Wester Mountains I thought “Wonderful!” We bought our property, less than one kilometre from the proposed site, and began to plan our environmentally friendly home, complete with solar and geothermal heat.

Once I discovered how big the turbines are (see diagram) I decided to do some research. What I learned was nothing less than alarming. At Horizon Wind‘s recent deputation to city council, CEO Anthony Zwig, said it best: “Green energy is all about economics.” I couldn‘t agree more.

Here‘s why:
The Copenhagen newspaper Politiken reported, “The increase in the demand for coal, needed to plug the gap left by underperforming wind farms, meant that Danish carbon emissions rose by 36 per cent in 2006.” The Danish experience (leaders in wind energy) suggests “wind energy is inefficient, expensive and not even particularly green.” Denmark has now restricted wind energy projects to off-shore developments only.
Der Spiegel reported that despite over 20,000 wind turbines in Germany, “German CO2 emissions haven‘t been reduced by even a single gram” and even the Green Party has recognized the problem.

The Wall Street Journal explained last September that in order to cover the inconsistencies of the wind power now on the German grid, “Germany‘s gas consumption for power generation has more than doubled between 1990 and 2007.”

Never has a coal plant been closed as a result of wind power. Wind is completely dependent on traditional power supplies which run idly at all times in order to fill the gaps on the grid when the wind doesn‘t blow.

While we cannot stop the economic world from turning, we must consider the devastating impacts of industrial wind turbines when placed too close to human habitation and wildlife habitats.

Two endangered species dwell on the Nor‘Westers. The White Pelican and the Peregrine Falcon. The raptors, including the Peregrine, use the thermals, created by the turbines to hover for longer periods while searching for prey. As a result, their wings get caught in the blades, and they fall to their death.

The low frequency sound and infrasound created by industrial wind turbines travels through the earth and drives away wildlife. Shadow flicker sets off an alarm signal in wildlife forcing them to abandon their habitat. While the wildlife can flee, the animals living nearby suffer.

Some 400 goats died in Taiwan after eight industrial wind turbines were installed close to their grazing land. The farmer reported that “The goats looked skinny and wouldn‘t eat. One night I went out and the goats were all standing up; they weren‘t sleeping.” The wind developer ultimately paid the farmer in part to rebuild his farm elsewhere.

Ontario beef farmer Ross Brindley is suing the wind developer after being driven out of business. Once the turbines went up his cattle started exhibiting aggressive and erratic behaviour, including “the kicking of newborn calves, prolapsed birthing, weight loss, decline in fertility, deformed calves and a high incidence of stillbirths.”

The most serious concern is the effect on human health. Health Canada advises: “There are peer-reviewed scientific articles indicating that wind turbines may have an adverse impact on human health.” People forced to live close to wind farms are reporting a core set of adverse health symptoms that are consistent across the globe. Many families have had to abandon their homes in order to protect their health.

Sleep disturbance, tinnitus, headaches, hearing and vision problems, stress, anxiety, depression, cognitive impairment, concentration and memory problems, heart palpitations and hypertension are some of the symptoms.

Peer-reviewed research found changes in sleep pattern, behaviour and academic performance in children. “Seventy per cent of school-aged children in the study had a decline in school performance while exposed to wind turbine noise. School performance recovered after exposure ceased.”

In Southern Ontario, 98 of 124 respondents report altered health since wind turbines have been installed near homes. The responses are under-reported due to non-disclosure agreements, good neighbour clauses, and those who fear losing real estate value.

While the wind industry has leapt at a chance to make enormous amounts of money here in Ontario, it seems the people must pay heavily, not only from their pockets.

Margot Freitag
Thunder Bay

Posted in Concerned citizen letters, Environment | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

LaGrange County (Indiana) Council to trade $200 million tax cut for 15 jobs at industrial wind plant. WHAT???

Posted on February 17, 2010 by morgan

From the Fort Wayne, Indiana JournalGazette.net:

Published: February 17, 2010 3:00 a.m.

BRIEFS

Wind farm developer gets tax cut

Staff, news services

The LaGrange County Council gave its preliminary approval Tuesday to a 10-year phase-in of property taxes on a wind farm that could be worth up to $200 million.

Pioneer Wind Energy LLC will start filing paperwork for the abatement and plans to start construction by the end of the year, said Keith Gillenwater, executive director of the LaGrange County Economic Development Corp.

Fort Wayne-based Pioneer plans to build turbines between Topeka and Shipshewana. The company announced plans for the wind farm in April 2009.

It wants to build 40 to 70 turbines. Gillenwater didn’t have figures for the number of construction jobs the project will create, but after the wind farm is running, it will employ about 15, he said.

AT Note:  Who says the Brooklyn Bridge is off the market?

Posted in Industrial Wind and Local Governments, Wind Energy Shenanigans | Tagged , , | Leave a comment