Write-in candidate for governor Annette Smith amped up her rhetoric on wind energy today during an appearance on WDEV-FM’s “The Mark Johnson Show,” comparing wind turbines to “a terrorist” landing in your community.
“Don’t shoot the messenger. I’m sorry, I thought wind was going to be part of the solution,” Smith told the radio host. “When you work on the wind issue, and you go into these communities — it’s like a terrorist has landed in your community.”
Here’s audio of the quote:
Smith: “Don’t shoot the messenger.“
Smith, who is waging a write-in campaign as an independent after narrowly losing a write-in campaign for the Progressive nomination, appeared on Johnson’s show to talk about her campaign and her choice to remain at the head of the nonprofit advocacy group Vermonters for a Clean Environment, among other topics.
Smith’s no stranger to strong words about wind development. In March, she told me developers are “making climate-change victims out of the people who live around the projects” — to which climate change activist Bill McKibben, a supporter of wind development, retorted that there are plenty of people and places around the world that better qualify as victims.
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Annette Smith should know about terrorism. She is a pathological NIMBY-terrorist. Nowhere else but Vermont would a houseperson with no technical or energy policy background be taken seriously.
What the wind industry is doing to Northern New England is nothing short of eco-terrorism. Scalping, blasting away, leveling millions of cubic yards of mountains is destroying hundreds of miles of our sensitive upland environments. For what? Machines that are totally out of place and out of scale–turbines that are as tall as Boston skyscrapers, ruining Maine, NH, and Vermont’s “Quality of Place”. The best locations barely meet 30% capacity factor and most projects are in the low 20’s % range. Unpredictable, unreliable, non-dispatchable electricity generation that cannot compete in the market without extraordinarily generous Taxpayer subsidies. We are throwing away our unique regional heritage and natural resources for a folly.
Regarding noise, we are applying noise standards developed for other purposes to machines that have a unique sound signature. Again, we are allowing destruction of wildlife and human habitat without fully understanding the ramifications of audible repetitive noise and harmful low frequency sound waves intruding into the lives of humans and wildlife.
This is just a huge experiment. Unlike open farmland or desert on flat or gently rolling terrain, our New England projects are being placed on ridges surrounded by other ridges and sound traveling across bodies of water. In Lincoln Lakes, Maine, the various weather conditions create noise impacts that the CAD noise impact zone in First Wind’s application could never predict, though the locals knew how the sound would reverberate across the water and from ridge to ridge. In the case of the Vinalhaven, Maine turbines, one of the noise “hot spots” is more than a half a mile away on another hill.
There are so many things wrong with industrial wind power that it is a travesty that so many people and especially pandering politicians, have swallowed 20 years of wind industry propaganda and continue to support an environmentally devastating industry. All the hype about wind power has been refuted, yet we allow “green” zealots to keep this folly on a relentless path that we will come to deeply regret. Thank goodness there are people like Annette Smith who stand up for the truth and for protection of Vermont’s mountains!
Annette has been an avid, dedicated and working environmentalist for over 20 years, is the head of Vermonters For A Clean Environment and she knows her stuff. Her knowledge of the ins and outs of hydrology ~ stormwater run off, erosion, stream and river ecology, etc is substantial. Not helpful that you attempt to minimize her, and unsuccessfully I might say. I have read your posts on other issues before. You are quite the aggressor.
Wind Turbine Syndrome has been documented!
Wind Turbine Syndrome
A Report on a Natural Experiment
a book by Nina Pierpont
“Wind energy is a multi-billion dollar a year industry. It’s billed as
“clean, green, renewable.†In this engagingly written, peer-reviewed
report by a Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine-trained M.D. and
Princeton (Population Biology) Ph.D., we discover wind energy’s dirty
little secret.
Many people living within 2 km (1.25 miles) of these spinning giants
get sick. So sick that they often abandon (as in, lock the door and
leave) their homes. Nobody wants to buy their acoustically toxic homes.
The “lucky ones†get quietly bought out by the wind developers—who
steadfastly refuse to acknowledge that Wind Turbine Syndrome exists.
(And yet the wind developers thoughtfully include a confidentiality
clause in the sales agreement, forbidding their victim from discussing
the matter further.)”
http://www.windturbinesyndrome…
WIND TURBINE SYNDROME: http://www.windturbinesyndrome…
The consequences for the increasing numbers of people are affected by infrasound and low frequency noise from a variety of sources including wind turbines are as Annette has described. I have spent the last 2 years investigating and working to ensure the multidisciplinary research is done, and have been contacted by those living within 10km of wind turbines, CSG compressors, coal mines, and gas fired power stations. The symptoms and pattern of their occurrence are identical in many respects.
Wind turbine syndrome symptoms are real, and have been admitted by one of the wind industry’s favourite acousticians, Professor Geoffrey Leventhall, who has also recently acknowledged Dr Pierpont’s important contribution to the field of environmental noise, by identifying the susceptible populations. These are the elderly, the very young, and those with a history of motion sickness, migraines, and inner ear pathology.
Over time, the effects of the chronic sleep deprivation and chronic physiological stress so well known to result in deteriorating mental and physical health will be the inevitable consequences. This was to be predicted from the work of Leventhall in his important 2003 Literature Review (see http://www.wind-watch.org/docu… ) particularly page 49 and section 10 and the concluding remarks, which show that for those who become sensitised or who are affected, they will continue to worsen until the exposure stops. For residents living near wind turbines, this means until they move or the turbines are shut down. There is no alternative, as the penetrating low frequency sound waves cannot be blocked, indeed good insulation makes the problems worse, as Rand and Ambrose describe in their acoustic survey at Falmouth (see http://www.wind-watch.org/docu…
For those reasons, the Waubra Foundation recommend a buffer distance of at least 10km until we know more about this serious and growing global public health problem, and we recommend that all existing wind developments must have the full sound spectrum measured inside and outside homes, in order to start to quantify what the exposures are. We also recommend permanent real time monitoring straight to the internet, together with the wind mast data, which means that compliance with existing (albeit inadequate) noise guidelines can be properly determined by independent acousticians, rather than relying solely on those acousticians who are employed by these noise polluters and who it would appear do not act in accordance with their professional codes of conduct to protect the health and safety of the public.
I have friends who I respect on both sides of this question. What I don’t understand is how environmentalists applaud Act 250 on almost everything even when Act 250 blocks common sense development like local gravel pits (the closest gravel pit to Waitsfield is in Morrisville thanks to Act 250, what is environmentally sound about trucking gravel 40 miles?) yet these same environmentalists don’t think the Act 250 process is a good idea for wind projects. They’d rather some (pro-utility-owned-wind, at the moment) bureaucrats and utility-monopolies make all the decisions and forget about local input.
I’m sorry folks but you can’t have it both ways. I like Annette’s focus on restoring We the People via taking political power back from the feds/state and into the hands of people at the local level. If you are against local control you are against the self-determination culture that Vermont has always been rooted in, even before white people came here.
And worst of all, amid all the “replace Vt Yankee” and “fight climate change” talk, nobody mentions the fact that Vermont already has enough existing hydro-power that our ancestors built to completely replace the power we got from Vt Yankee, but ALL of that 567MW of hydro on Deerfield/CT Rivers is owned by foreign mega-corp TransCanada, and ALL of that power is exported to NH/MA.
TransCanada, the same company that’s doing the TarSands debacle in the NEK and other parts of the US exports all of our renewable energy…but to fight climate change we need to industrialize our ridge-lines by subsidizing another foreign monopoly, GazMetro? huh? I’m all for renewable energy but I smell a rat in the Democratic party-line on all of this and I’m glad people like Annette are stepping up to confront this.
Gov’t would fight terrorists. Here in VT and most of the country the eco-fascists politicians are working with these subsidy sucking parasitic wind developers to destroy our environment and trample our rights in the name of green.
There’s a glut of generation in New England, an oversupply. We don’t need to be building intermittent, environmentally destructive, expensive wind power. Leaving the mountains and forests intact will do more for climate change than ugly, strobe lit wind towers. Hundreds of thousands of wind turbines installed around the world over the past 25 years have done nothing to lower emissions and they never will.
it’s great to see an honest, intelligent person like Annette running for governor and raising these issues. Until people are faced with an industrial wind project in their area they keep believing the wind industry propaganda. When they do a little research they realize that the wind industry is more about generating subsidies than clean, green electricity.
Use Less
So when some ill-informed project gets shoved into your face or poisons your well, who ya gonna call? Annette’s your best shot. You know not of what you speak.
That’s the issue: you START with the pre-conceived belief that the project is “ill-informed” because you hate development that you don’t want to see. Guess what? The majority of the state disagrees with you on wind, and our independent PSB system vetted the wind projects and found them to be in the public interest of the state. If you and your NIMBY-ist pals don’t like it, then you’re selfish and anti-democratic.
Annette’s only “your best shot” if you’re a selfish NIMBYist.
Actually, it’s Annette who’s the aggressor. She steps in and opposes everything. She offers no solutions. And what’s worse, after she loses a fight, she whines and complains that the game wasn’t fair because she didn’t get her way, and supports undemocratic civil disobedience against the will of the majority. So who’s the aggressor?
Please find some information regarding the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) and the so called ‘report’ produced by the so called ‘independent expert’ panel. MA citizens repeatedly called, emailed and met with DEP and DPH senior officials since June 2, 2010. As an example see a quote from letter to DEP and DPH by MA citizens on 7/25/11:
“We were assured by highly regarded administrators of DPH that the experts chosen for the panel will be totally independent and unbiased, and that no member of the expert panel has ever been paid, or is currently being paid, by the wind energy industry, pro-wind advocacy organizations, wind developers, or any related industries. We also respectfully request that:
* The meetings of the expert panel are public meetings and that public hearings be held so the public is able to speak to the panel and to appropriately express concerns in a timely manner but without a three minute time limit.
* At least one seat at the table of this expert panel be from the unfortunate group of over 50 physically ill citizens in the town of Falmouth, MA who are living with wind turbines that are sited too close to their homes.
* The DEP set up a citizens’ advisory committee.â€
http://windwisema.org/press-pa…
In spite of major objections concerning the process that DEP employed, DEP selected cherry picked biased panel members, the panel met in secret, no member of the public was chosen to participate and no member of the public was able to sit in on any of the panel meetings, and the panel did not even visit locations where people in MA living in the proximity to wind turbines are sick (which was part of the Scope of Work as stated by DEP). There are now 20 such locations in MA that we know of.
The following link shows a 16 page overview that was submitted to DEP for review of the DEP panel members. This document was sent in July of 2011 along with over 200 documents demonstrating the adverse health impacts of wind turbines, including the text of 82 letters from MA citizens and others around the world who live in the proximity to wind turbines: http://windwisema.files.wordpr…
Below please find links to what some experts wrote about the report of the DEP panel. This report has been called what it is – junk science: http://windwisema.org/2012/01/… http://windwisema.org/2012/03/… http://windwisema.org/after-tu… http://windwisema.org/2012/03/…
Below please find a link to the testimony of some MA citizens following the release of the DEP panel findings. http://windwisema.org/bourne-h…
Below please find a link to information about how DEP marketed their panel report and why there is a problem with how DEP spins this work of fiction: http://windwisema.org/after-tu…
I would like to add to the “choice tidbits” chosen by this poster to sum up the “findings” of the Mass Wind Turbine Health Impact “study” released in January of 2012.
From the Mass DEP DPH report:
“It is acknowledged that noise from wind
turbines can be annoying to some and associated with some reported health
effects (e.g., sleep disturbance) (p. 29)
“Given the effects of sleep deprivation on
health and well-being, including problems with mood and cognition, it is
possible that cognitive and mood complaints and other medical or psychological
issues associated with sleep loss can stem from living in immediate proximity
to wind turbines, if the turbines disrupt sleep.†(p. 32-33)
Governor Patrick’s quote on the report:
“…
further study is needed to look at health impacts from “annoyance†for
residents who live near turbines.â€
Also, to the good people of Vermont…please know the residents of the most recently impacted Massachusetts community, Scituate, Ma have now engaged their Board of Health…the adverse impacts to health and well-being are reported by residents that live in excess of half a mile…one family is reported to be 3,500 feet from their single turbine. The notion that adverse impacts are relegated to those living under 1/2 mile from industrial wind turbines IS SIMPLY FALSE.
I am sorry to say that I do not respect this poster, as the quotes, or tidbits, she chose to share from the Mass DEP DPH health impact study were, in my honest opinion, misleading to your readers. I personally attended a meeting with one of the panel members from the study, a Boston University professor…when asked why people from all over the world are falling ill/having their health impacted her response was “IT IS CLEAR TO ME THAT INDUSTRIAL WIND TURBINES ARE SITED TOO CLOSE TO RESIDENTS HOMES”…the problem at this point is that there is no governmental agency pushing for answers to protect the citizens of this country, wonder why?
Where do you start? Wind Energy is first and foremost a tax and ratepayer scam. Well moneyed sources erect Industrial Wind Turbines in any location…to skim off ratepayer and tax kickbacks. They can depreciated over and over by Private Equity and Investment banks as they are great source to counter balance profits. They are a plausible source of power…but sadly the truth is they increase SO2 and NO2 and do little to lower CO2. My first brush with Industrial Wind Turbines was an attempt to build them within Cape Cod National SeaShore…A NATIONAL SEASHORE!!!….Three 400 ft Industrial Wind Turbine with all the wiring and roads….the nearby tree were 40 ft high….the next tallest object was in Boston!
So myself and some liked minded people…who had chosen “Green Energy” on our electric bills started researching their contributions and effects. We were SHOCKED! Most of the their contribution is in the dead of night when the power isn’t needed…and most only produce power at 10%-30% of their rated output. The awful harm to raptors is dramatic…in California 10% of the Golden Eagle population is killed EVERYYEAR! Industrial Wind Turbines and their infrastructure is the NUMBER ONE KILLER! In NJ a study of 5 turbines showed each killed 78 bats and birds per year especially larger raptors…a Peregrine Falcon of which only 50 breed in the state was killed in YEAR ONE. The study highlighted only 12% of the killed birds are found.
A study for the Germany Gov. showed that much more CO2 could be saved by conservation and efficiency on euro by euro basis! Longtime Godfather of the Greens in Germany Fritz Vahrenholt and head of one of the largest Wind Energy Companies…just quit as he realizes that Wind Energy is expensive, intermittent and useless in the fight for Global Warming. Also go study the real world experiences of ERCOT the Texas grid operator and their use of wind energy. How Nitrous Dioxide and Sulfur Dioxide increase with their use of Wind Energy and CO2 output didn’t decline as inefficent power plants need to shadow they highly variable wind. Or how the up and down nature of wind energy versus our requirement of stable electricity harmed existing power plants…causing them to be taken out of service and costing hundreds of millions of dollar!
Remember that not one fossil fuel plant can be closed because wind isn’t there 70-90% of the time!!! So you need to pay for both power plants….The cost of wholesale electricity is 3-5 cents…you pay wind operators around 20 cent for their electricity(that is on top of tax credits, accelerated deprecation and other “incentives”) Remember the Gov of Maine thought it was such a sure thing he quit to make money in wind energy which he made the rules for!
The number of sound studies and negative experiences are too numerous and occur in every country where wind energy exists…many countries paying directly for people’s suffering! Australia passed a law requiring at least 1.25 miles from Industrial Wind Turbines to neighbors!
In the crowded Eastern part of the US…almost every wind installation is being contested in expensive lawsuit after lawsuit…with large public outcries. And don’t forget that most wind energy makers are going bankrupt as the maintenance costs are a nightmare and full overhauls are required at least every 8 years. In Delaware their One installation just required a full replacement after it was struck by lightening! Wind Energy is a nightmare of problems with no benefit except brownie points for electric companies or money for deep pocketed investors. Nature and People don’t win!
a houseperson? who are you and why are you so mysoginist? is a houseperson the same thing as a stay at home mom…if so, in my experience stay at home moms are some of the most knowledgeable, well rounded and common sense individuals I have come across and as such are well prepared for many career transitions…including most importantly looking out for the best interests of their fellow residents! houseperson indeed! here’s to housepeople!!!!
Sutton what do you know about wind energy? I can go down the whole list of why it will always be expensive, why it doesn’t lower CO2, why there are lots better ways to lower our impact on the environment, why it continues to killer large amounts of birds and bats many already threatened, why it hogs and destroys open space, why building an energy source that requires 100% backup is expensive and wasteful, why a highly variable output pollutes more than a stable source like nat gas, why the wind turbine makers all go bankrupt, why nearby people and animals are harmed, how the sound propagates, why some people get sick and others don’t, why in every country they are used, the symptoms are the same, why the largest Electric company in Denmark the country with the most expereince with wind energy refuses to build land based wind turbines, why many counties give cash payment to neighbors they realize they are harming, why wind energy companies documents warn employees to stay at least 1600 ft away unless they have to approach closer….Where would you like to begin with your technical knowledge?
“” because you hate development that you don’t want to see.”
You seem to be stuck on this – view is the LAST thing that people object to. How old are you, anyway?
Guess what. All of your arguments have been made to the legislature, to the PSB, and to anyone else who’ll listen to you, and your side lost.
We’re all NIMBYs, it’s just that the turbines ARE in my back yard, and NOT in yours (yet).
This is how it happened to us, and could happen to you:
· A turbine shows up within a mile and a half mile of your house (or in your backyard).
· The noise is awful. You can’t stand it. You can’t sleep and suffer from the lack. You even get sick.
· You need to move, but to do that you need to sell this place first.
· You can’t sell because nobody else wants the noise either. Who would buy your house?
· So you have to stay and endure the noise. And you suffer.
· Your house is virtually unmarketable, which means your major asset is nearly worthless.
· This is a huge “theft†of your money, the equity in your house, and most of your net worth.
· Your financial future is devastated. Now what are you going to do?
· And you still suffer impaired sleep and its health effects from the noise.
· So you can ask yourself, what is the most important thing on YOUR voting agenda?
We live on Vinalhaven over a half a mile from 3 industrial sized 1.5 GE turbines. Our “community wind” project has torn our community apart. Fox Islands Electric hired RSE, an acoustical firm in Brunswick, Maine, to study Vinalhaven’s chosen wind site. They predicted that noise would be a serious problem for neighbors. Fox Islands Wind, our community wind developer, did not like what RSE had to say, fired them, and hired Acentech of Mass.. Acentech, using modeling from wind sites in the midwest , predicted that the turbine noise would be masked by the sound of the wind in the trees. The Acentech model completely ignored the issue of wind shear and therefore their modeling is wrong and those of us living near the turbines are paying the price for their serious mistake. Even with the new “owls wing” technology which reduces noise in moderate winds, when the wind picks up the turbine throbbing begins. The turbine noise on Vinalhaven is horrific! Fox Islands Wind continues to spend a fortune on lawyers in an effort to hide their sound data and to avoid taking responsibility for the tremendous mistakes they made in putting the turbines too close to homes and on a relatively small site that required that the turbines be placed in a triangular formation, thus downwind of each other. Those of us who live near the turbine suffer daily with the frustration of the constant noise. It is WRONG to ask individuals to live under these impossible conditions. My family has experienced serious health effects, but cannot afford to move. Who would buy our house? Is there no recourse? Where is the Maine DEP and the legislature who should help citizens such as us! Why hasn’t the EPA stepped in?? From what we can tell, thanks to the taxpayer dollars and investors’ desire for money, people who live near turbines are being sold out. As Annette says, we are the sacrificial lambs and our numbers are growing! It is TIME to pass some serious federal legislation which will not only insist on a 1.25 mile set back from industrial sized turbines, but also provide assistance for people who live near turbines and whose homes and savings have been wiped out! Thank you, Annette, for your voice.
Let us be clear. Wind energy needs supporting coal and gas fired back up plants to work with our grid, thus limiting carbon emission savings. We are asking people to sacrifice their health, and their quality of life for an idea – not for a real solution. The MA DEP report was created by a pro-wind panel (Manville and Mills) on a limited literature review in order to support the wind energy goals and political ambitions of Deval Patrick.
To properly inform yourself about the true effects of wind turbines on people and communities, read instead the entire August, 2011 issue of the Bulletin of Science, Technology and Society, especially the work of Phillips, Krogh, McMurtry, Thorne and Salt. Read also Dr. Salt’s latest work as presented at Internoise 2012.
Here in Fairhaven my friends and neighbors are suffering from headaches, migraines, sleeplessness, and vertigo that began when the turbines went up. A new elementary school is being built within 3000 feet of two 1.5 mw turbines. Some of our children will be exposed to turbine sound 24 hours a day. Homes are going on the market with no takers. Placing turbines along the coastal flyways anywhere threatens migratory birds and bats. Here in Fairhaven the toll on these creatures is mounting. It is hard to look at a photo of a bat with its lungs clearly exploded and not be concerned about what this is doing to humans as well.
Who is Hoo?
I just had to ask. I knew if I didn’t do it, somebody else just couldn’t resist. But now that I think about it, what credentials does Hoo have? I’m sure “Horton†would like to hear from Hoo, too.
Hoo denigrates Annette Smith but doesn’t seem, at least from the comments, to have much expertise other than an opinion. A “housepersonâ€! And what?… Hoo is not a houseperson? Well, who isn’t?
Does Hoo live under a turbine? Has Hoo lost his life savings because an
industrial wind turbine project was built next door? Does Hoo really believe the line that wind energy is green, free, and will save the world from global warming? Really? What are Hoo’s credentials to back up his view on wind energy and how it affects the world and nearby residents? Is there, perhaps, a “technology or energy policy background†lurking behind the scenes, here?
So who is Hoo? Also… What is what? And why should we listen?
This is not just a light-hearted criticism of Hoo’s comments (from someone who does live under a turbine, but without much other expertise). We all really would like to know. Really.
Who is Hoo? And Hoo is… … who?
No, sir, we are NOT all NIMBYs. I’m sure it comforts you to believe that, but it isn’t true. Not everyone is concnerned only with himself or herself. Some people believe that we should do what our democratically elected representatives (the legislature) and our civil institutions (the PSB) have decided is in the best interest of the state: renewable energy projects. Some people believe in private property and that the owners of private property have the right to decide how to use it consistent with government regulation. Some people believe in community. I live near utility and power projects that some of my neighbors oppose but I don’t, even though I can see them just as much as my neighbors. Because I don’t believe in NIMBYism.
And just who are you?
In response to: Wind Development like ” Terrorist” has landed in your community. Annette Smith, you may just have a point!
I do not know how many ways one can say that the Massachusetts DEP/DPH study was/is flawed. A so-called panel of experts to pass judgement not on facts and current issues affecting real people in local communities, but on other’s opinions; this at a time when every day we are learning the damage inherent in industrial wind turbines. That is not scientific research, it is a literature review and for all who are equally intent on pushing forward The Industrial Wind Turbine Agenda, and, there is one prevalent across the country and around the world, it is acceptable. Perish the thought that we would confuse the issue with facts and in depth scientific research.
We do not have a National Energy Plan that can and will embrace all technologies equally. None of our energy resources is a one size fits all product, even though at this point, it would appear that Industrial Wind Turbines are the poster child for curing the ills of the world.
A moratorium on the Industrial Wind Turbine Agenda is a must. As far as energy is concerned, the country can only be considered as a whole unit, in its entirety coast to coast, north to south. The locations and uses appropriate for each energy source will emerge; some states may be more appropriate receptors for hydro, others for solar photovoltaic, others the old stand-by oil, gas, coal, and others, still, nuclear and wind.
We have, in this country, a great amount of energy technology wealth, including industrial wind turbines; it runs the gamut from solar to nuclear; we have in abundance great research centers and in even greater abundance human intelligence. This is a winning combination and leaves one to wonder why we are not leaders in energy technology and energy resource use. Use of coal, gas, oil with clean rivers and waterways and clean air can all be accomplished by spending the money we are throwing at Industrial Wind Turbine farms and their generation on all other technologies equally.
Each state’s statesmen/women seem to feel this is a game a race to see who can build the most industrial wind farms in the most inappropriate locations. For how many years have we fought to keep our mountains high, our open spaces sacred; and, now, it is all right to destroy all of this in deference to a 50 story, 62-ton, machine that is anything but green. Like most who are asking for an Industrial Wind Turbine moratorium, I embraced them; they were good for this country and good for our future; as presently implemented, that is a lie; read both sides of the issue and defer to the side of caution.
I must take this one step further because we can add another question to the laundry list of unanswered questions as it relates to the Industrial Wind Turbine Agenda.
National security. Is it possible that an industrial wind turbine could be a 360 degree 50-story skype; how far reaching would that eye-on-the-world be? And, who would benefit? Only two possibilities: our government or another. And, it was our government that brought up the national security issue, the self same government that is behind and pushing The Industrial Wind Turbine Agenda. The Oregon wind farm in question is 10 miles from the military base in question.
Here, in Massachusetts, our Cape Cod Military Base has wind turbines on their property with more coming in the near future. A 50-story skype? Not out of the realm of possibility. A “terrorist”, yes, in the most figurative of ways, and, who knows, literally, too.A Wind Farm in Oregon Threatens National Security and …
climatelawyers.com/post/2012/0……
Sep 30, 2012 … A Wind Farm in Oregon Threatens National Security and President Obama Acts … Sany Heavy Industries), a Chinese company affiliated with Ralls (together, the … might be necessary: “a wind farm within observation distance of a sensitive, … To return to Naval Weapons Systems Training Facility Boardman, …
Marie-Jane
Wind power conjures up bucolic images of little dutch girls in wooden clogs and pigtails. The image has nothing to do with the reality off commercial Wind Energy and the blight it leaves on the environment. In Spain they have made a huge investment in wind energy the result is a power grid that goes down in large windstorms, the electricity is the most expensive in the world.
The science of capturing the wind is fraught with problems, each turbine must be connected to the grid which means clearing mountainsides of trees and foliage under the transmission lines killing our natural habitat. It is said that you need 100,000 acres to equal the energy output of one acre of nuclear energy.
Each Turbine takes 4000 lbs of rare earth minerals the rape of the land to extract rare earth minerals caused the EPA to shut down the practices in the USA.
Wind energy must be used directly in the grid it cannot be stored , tat the beauty of a power source that releases energy like oil,gas, coal, wood or nuclear fuel. Wind is not the passive energy producer the people who have given huge industrial energy plants names like wind farms. They are only farms in the sense that Monsanto or Cargil and their chemical waste stream and patented seed mills are farms. Kinda evil and wretched for the little benefit they produce.
Bill Mc Kibben should contact Dr Drooz from across the lake in NY about the efficacy of wind energy it is a crap argument that trying to capture wind while stringing miles of transmission lines killing off forests to maintain those transmission lines is our savior. Bill McKibbon is just a man not some deity as his name is invoked in these pages, last time I checked he still farts belches and takes a dump like everyone else.
Completely agree, Sutton_Hoo!!! Thank you for calling Annette out for what she is. She has been one of the driving forces in frightening Vermonters from one of the cleanest, most cost-effective forms of new clean renewable energy available. For all you who believe in Annette’s information, do tell me how Europeans aren’t dying left and right from noise syndrome, and how Colorado has powered a bunch of their power from wind, and for the NIMBY,s – so you are selfish enough (and don’t call yourself a Vermonter!!!!) to flood Canada, to frack Pennsylvania and to get your nuclear power from New Hampshire??? SHAME ON YOU ALL!!!!!!!!! Learn your facts about energy before you repeat a bunch of hogwash. Look at Department of Energy facts on wind, look at National Renewable Energy Laboratory facts on wind (NREL). And regarding Sutton’s age, what does that matter? I’ve been to plenty of the anti- meetings (and let’s just state that there are under 400 of you, cuz that’s all Annette could get to vote for) many of you are retired and really won’t be around when your decisions at Town Halls gravely impact the future of our youth. Climate change? Having fuel prices that go up and down and up and down? No jobs? We have a chance at a green revolution – but the nimby’s and anti-winders instead offer only NO, let’s force Vermonts energy needs on to others backs.
This from Billy Bob: “Each Turbine takes 4000 lbs of rare earth minerals the rape of the land to extract rare earth minerals caused the EPA to shut down the practices in the USA.”
Oh, the hypocrisy! Not in our back yard says the EPA of rare earth minerals mining; no, not in our back yard; BUT, we will turn our backs while other places in the world rape to accommodate our energy needs. Oh, the hypocrisy! And, then we will turn our back once again on the people of the U.S. while developers and manufacturers rape our natural resources and our quality of life to implement the Industrial Wind Turbine Agenda in the U.S.
Oh, the hypocrisy!
Here’s a recent SCIENTIFIC study about wind turbines and noise, with a few high level bullet points below:
http://www.jsonline.com/news/o…
• There is no evidence that the audible or sub-audible sounds emitted by wind turbines have any direct adverse physiological effects.
• Sub audible, low frequency sound and infrasound from wind turbines do not present a risk to human health.
• Sound from wind turbines does not pose a risk of hearing loss or any other adverse health effect in humans.
• Some people may be annoyed at the presence of sound from wind turbines. Annoyance is not pathological.
• A major cause of concern about wind turbine sound is its fluctuating nature. Some may find this sound annoying, a reaction that depends primarily on personal characteristics as opposed to the intensity of the sound level.
• The ground-borne vibrations from wind turbines are too weak to be detected by, or to affect, humans.
• The sounds emitted by wind turbines are not unique. There is no reason to believe, based on the levels and frequencies of the sounds and the panel’s experience with sound exposures in occupational settings, that the sounds from wind turbines could plausibly have direct adverse health consequences.
For more information on other scientific, peer-reviewed reports, visit: http://www.windworksvermont.org
Within a polite discussion on this issue with a friend, recently… as with most who have conducted zero to minimal research, he was only aware of Wind and Solar as our two alternatives to the energy question. I had mentioned that I could likely compose a list of 50 options that addressed these concerns more effectively. And, not one of those required bulldozing the oldest mountains on Earth. Pay a visit to West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky if you’d like to see what’s awaiting northern New England, due to decisions based on misinformation, and lack of information. 200 miles of Vermont’s mountains are in the bulls-eye… in a state that is only 160 miles long.
To make sure I had not overstated my declaration, I set to work seeing if I could indeed compose a list of 50+. I put down my pencil around #53. Whatever your global environmental concerns might be, Wind does nothing to solve any of that. However, there is a very long list of negatives that do come with wind turbines on our pristine mountains! Wildlife habitat, water runoff, destroying our Tourism Industry, elevating the costs of energy and risking IBM and other businesses running off to other states, destroying property values, killing the rural beauty and regional culture of our state, and turning us into a ghost town, etc, etc.
If you own a home within sight and/or earshot of a wind farm, count on your property being worth a fraction of what it was before. And expect, even with a hugely discounted asking price, you will have very few buyers interested in purchasing ‘damaged goods’.
There are too many better options to destroying our state with industrial-scale wind farms, to not be investigating other alternatives.