Opinions Offered and Needed

DR. RAYMOND S. HARTMAN has an opinion in South Coast Today‘s “Your View” on “Real science behind concerns over wind turbines.”

• Hartman finds Sumul Shah wrong on his assertion that the new study by Michael Nissenbaum (and others) is a first. Hartman lists 5 earlier peer-reviewed studies.
• He finds Brian Bowcock, chairman of the Fairhaven Board of Selectmen, ignorant in his suspicion that a 4500-foot distance from a turbine seems an excessive distance to experience turbine effects. Hartman lists 6 findings where setbacks should be greater, even up to 6 miles.

Thank goodness there are people with expertise out there to set the record straight.

The Globe’s Business Section promotional piece masquerading as news–showing Iberdrola’s Hoosac project turbines, and touting First Wind’s projects in New England–could use some correction.

Fire those opinions away. Take your pick:

• Not clean energy–the noise emissions you can’t see can still hurt you
• Not green–requires coal, nuclear backup and natural gas to smooth erratic production
• Not employing–you have to be on the construction crew from Maine who bulldozes and cements projects all over New England
• Not perpetual–gear boxes are already failing on installed machines; in California, they just abandon the rusting hulks where they sit
• Not raising revenue–promises far outstrip reality in First Wind’s Mars Hill, ME and  Cohocton, NY projects