Wind "farm" madness

Recent Updates:

Press Release - Industrial Wind Turbines, Infrasound and Vibro-Acoustic Disease (VAD)

Democrats propose billions for renewable energy

Energy corridors draw fire: 50 million Americans spread out across 117,000 miles could be impacted by the Energy Department’s decision.

Maple Ridge Postconstruction Bird and Bat Fatality Study estimates 2,200 to 4,094 birds and bats killed by 120 turbines during the 5-month study period

Concerned Citizens of Cattaraugus County calls for responsible placement of wind towers in Southern Tier

A Critical Evaluation of the Energy Plans and Actions Announced in April 2007 - major implications for the people of New York.

Coalition of Citizens File Anti-Trust Complaint With the Department Of Justice Against the Wind Industry

Mars Hill (Maine) turbine neighbors shocked at noise:

Town of Wethersfield Local Law Governing Wind Turbines

An excellent summary of what's wrong with the wind development situation in New York is the Remarks Delivered To The Assembly Committee On Energy And The Subcommittee On Renewable Energy, Examining Policy And Implementation Plans For The RPS Program on March 7, 2006 by an Ad Hoc Coalition Of Local Community Groups In Upstate New York. If you don't understand how anyone could be against wind development, this will sum up what so many citizens' groups are concerned about.

This website was created in response to a proposal by Noble Environmental Power, LLC to erect industrial turbines in the town of Wethersfield, NY, as well as a substation and overhead power lines. The turbines will be nearly 400 feet high (possibly taller), with a blade span as wide as the wingspan of a 747 jumbo jet.

Noble Environmental is majority owned by J P Morgan Partners and has their home office in Connecticut. Noble also has plans to erect 50-60 turbines in the town of Eagle, with the two projects joining together. (03/07 update: Noble is now proposing 73 turbines in the Town of Eagle and 59 in Wethersfield)

When you consider that the town of Wethersfield is only about 36.1 square miles in area, and Eagle only slightly larger, that puts into perspective what a huge project is being proposed. There are approximately 600 turbines planned for Wyoming County alone, as of December 2006.

Developers reveal very little about the details and aren't likely to tell you the negative aspects of a project while trying to sell you on it, but a little searching reveals an abundance of evidence that there are clearly some serious problems with these wind "farms". It's only in recent years that they've been constructed in residential areas and the associated problems have resulted in over 300 opposition groups springing up around the world, many of them environmentalists formerly in favor of windpower.

With a little reading, you'll find some surprising facts that have come to light recently. We've gathered many studies and documents from what we feel are reputable sources and put them here in one place for convenience. We've also included a section on Living With Wind, a collection of letters from wind farm neighbors. While these are not official documents, we've included them here because so many people from all over the world were saying the same things about living near industrial turbines.

We understand how landowners can find the lease money tempting and many could surely use it, but they know not what they do to their neighbors. They're being deceived by developers, whose main concern is profit. Surely they'd feel the same in their neighbors' place. The reports on the health effects of turbines are cause for concern. Many of us have kids and don't want to take chances with their health and safety. Many are retirees and can't afford to go elsewhere. There's no free lunch here - there will be a price to pay for some.

The town has been offered "up to" $760,000 a year from this wind project, but the developers from Connecticut will make many, many millions more (03/07 update: the amount offered to the Town of Wethersfield is now $500,000 per year). Rarely have the amounts quoted to a town in the initial stages been realized once the developer's foot is in the door. And money should never be our first consideration. Not one square mile of new countryside is being created. Instead, it's being steadily diminished, over-run by urban incursions, like satellite towers and wind "farms". We're being asked to exchange something increasingly precious that should go to our children and grandchildren for our own short term gain.

Please, at least read a few of these reports before you form an opinion on the issue. They don't take long to read. This is too important to limit your knowledge to wind industry advertisements. If we allow this and it turns out to be a mistake, it'll be too late - we'll be living with it for decades, as will our kids.

• Excerpts from the Final Report of the Township of Lincoln Wind Turbine Moratorium Committee: Twenty two turbines went online in Lincoln Township, Wisconsin in 1999. The moratorium committee conducted a survey on the perceived impacts of the wind turbines that was sent out to all property owners residing in the township. The results were presented to the town board, two years after the wind factory construction.
  
  Lawsuits spawned from Lincoln Township project:
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• Darmstadt Manifesto On The Exploitation Of Wind Energy In Germany: This is a 6 page .pdf file (the last 2 pages are signatures). You will need Adobe Acrobat or Acrobat Reader to view it. The Darmstadt Manifesto was written by a group of professors and doctors in Germany, the world's leader in windpower. It claims that the exploitation of wind energy promotes the type of technology which is of no significance whatever for the purpose of supplying energy, saving resources and protecting the climate. To date, it has been signed by more than 100 professors and scientists.
  
  
• Sound of High Winds and the Effect of Atmospheric Stability on Wind Turbine Sound and Microphone Noise: G.P.van den Berg, Science Shop for Physics, University of Groningen, Netherlands, 2006 (.pdf file)... 8 page summary of the only peer-reviewed, independent study on wind turbine noise, which explains why wind turbines are usually louder than predicted, especially at night. (Click here for an index of the full dissertation)