Vermonters Stand Up to Wind Developers
Several days after the protest at Lowell Mountain VT a truck carrying turbine components rolled over in Irasburg on its way from the staging area in Island Pond to Lowell Mountain. This is one of the 120 trips that will be traveling I-91 in the Northeast Kingdom through September. More on the protest in this video and below in this post. This report is by Melissa Sheketoff for WCAX TV3.
Wind Wise Radio – Wind is Renewable, Turbines are Not
WWR interviews Ozzie Zehner on Sunday, July 15, 2012 at 7:00 pm. Zehner wrote Green Illusions: The Dirty Secrets of Clean Energy and the Future of Environmentalism (Our Sustainable Future).
Wind Wise Radio will be giving away two free copies of Green Illusions — signed by Ozzie — during the show.
Ozzie Zehner is a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. He primarily researches the social, political and economic conditions influencing energy policy priorities and project outcomes. His work also incorporates symbolic roles that energy technologies play within political and environmental movements. His other research interests include consumerism, urban policy, environmental governance, international human rights, and forgeries. Zehner attended Kettering University (BS -Engineering) and The University of Amsterdam (MS/Drs – Science and Technology Studies). His research was awarded with honors at both institutions. He lives in Washington, DC and San Francisco.
His recent publications include public science pieces in Christian Science Monitor, The American Scholar, The Humanist, The Futurist, Women’s Studies Quarterly and The Economist as well as educational resources in Green Technology (Sage, 2011) and Green Culture (Sage, 2011). Zehner’s research and projects over the previous two decades have been covered by CNN, MSNBC, USA Today, Science News Radio, The Washington Post, Business Week and numerous other media outlets. He also serves on the editorial board of Critical Environmentalism.
Will Canada Get It Right?
While provinces rush to site hundreds of giant wind towers, the Canadian federal government proposes to study health effects with a $1.8 million, multidimensional approach, according to a “Notice to Stakeholders:”
Health Canada is working with Statistics Canada and other external experts possessing expertise in areas including noise, health assessment, clinical medicine and epidemiology, to design a research study that will explore the relationship between wind turbine noise and the extent of health effects reported by, and objectively measured in, those living near wind power developments. The design methodology will be peer-reviewed by the World Health Organization as well as multidisciplinary experts in conference settings.
The draft methodology is open for comment starting until August 08, 2012. Email comments to Principal Investigator David S. Michaud, PhD or fax to: 613-941-1734.
In a post on our Facebook page, Wind Wise ~ Massachusetts notes that “the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center has spent over $22 million on wind turbine feasibility and design studies and $0 on their health impacts.” As a result, Massachusetts continues to shoe-horn industrial turbines into residential neighborhoods, with no regard to the resulting health problems.
The newest version of the Wind Energy Siting Reform Act, a WESRA lite, is now H.4112 – An Act relative to the development of wind siting standards. H.4112 is currently in the House Ways and Means committee.
This bill gives a state agency mostly appointed by the governor the authority to establish rules and regulations for the siting of onshore wind turbines.
Governor Patrick insists the bill allows local control, a point he made to the editors and reporters of the Berkshire Eagle, recently. “The bill is all about local decision-making,” he added, “and it is about a clarity of path. It’s not about the state saying where these things go, it’s about a community deciding, with all the input it can bring to bear, whether a single turbine or a project in their community or neighboring communities makes sense so there’s some clarity about the end.”
The clarity of path, however, is the purpose behind the bill–written for wind development.
According to Eagle reporter Clarence Fanto, Lenox’s State Representative “Smitty” Pignatelli finds the bill “poorly written.” He said, “Personally, I hope it never gets out of committee.”
WESRA Lite gives a state agency, the Energy Facilities Siting Board, the power to make rules and regulations on turbine siting. Initially, the EFSB establishes an advisory panel to recommend standards under its direction. But if the advisory panel is not able to agree on standards recommendations, the EFSB can proceed to adopt whatever rules and regulations it wishes.
The EFSB acts with the approval of the governor’s political appointee, the Secretary of Energy & Environmental Affairs.
This bill gives the governor ultimate authority over the regulation of land-based wind facilities and associated transmission lines. The clearest fact about this bill is that it overrides local control.
Wind Wise Radio Presents Real Farms and Wind Farms
Sunday at 7:00 pm July 8, 2012, Wind Wise Radio addresses the impacts of industrial scale wind on agriculture.
Guests include Australian Anne Gardner, Kim Schertz from Illinois, Kevin Ashenbrenner, and Wisconsin State Senator Frank Lasee.
Anne Gardner is from Southwest Victoria in Australia. Anne and her husband Gus raise some of the finest merinos in the world and are being impacted by a massive industrial wind development.
Kim Schertz from Hudson, Illinois discusses groundwater problems in fields, GPS effects for tractors and aircraft, crop dusting dangers, the impacts on share croppers/tenant farmers and and other issues.
Kevin Ashenbrenner will talk about his experience with turbines impacting his livestock.
Wisconsin State Senator Frank Lasee will describe his recent efforts to address the concerns about the health and well being of folks located too close to industrial-scale wind turbines in his state.
Here is a bit of his recent op-ed:
How would you feel if you and your kids started feeling sick? What if you, your wife, or your kids suddenly started having headaches, earaches, nausea, dizziness, and couldn’t sleep well anymore. In your own home.
And you knew it wouldn’t go away?
This is the experience some people have when Industrial Wind Turbines (IWT’s), they’re nearly twice as tall as the state capitol building, and some are built too close to people’s homes. Wind turbines aren’t necessarily a bad thing; we should just make sure they aren’t making people sick.Some people experience very serious symptoms like high blood pressure, tinnitus, ear pressure, vertigo, visual blurring, heart arrhythmia, irritability, problems with concentration and memory, even panic attacks when they are near IWT’s. They emit high levels of low frequency noise which makes people sick. When these people are not around IWT’s, their symptoms vanish. It’s not hard to connect the dots.
At least three families from my district have abandoned the homes where they were raising their children and planned to retire because IWT’s have made them sick. These houses sit empty now, no one wants to buy them, and these families are stuck paying two mortgages.
You may be asking yourself, why are wind farm developers allowed to build IWT’s so close to people’s houses.
So close that it makes them sick? Why doesn’t the government prevent this?
WWR hosts Harley Keisch and Lisa Linowes will be asking Senator Lasee what he is proposing to help answer those questions.
Letters Debunk Wind Myths
In his letter to the editor in the Cape Cod Times, Chris Kapsambelis dispels the notion that wind turbines reduce our carbon footprint (Wind’s required sacrifices are for nothing in return):
Recent engineering studies show that carbon dioxide avoidance is marginal to nonexistent when wind turbines are connected to the power grid. The response we get from the wind industrialists is the “smart grid,” a pie-in-the-sky concept untested in the real world, so smart it can convert intermittent wind energy into power for your home.
The only thing that can provide the necessary flexible generation capacity for the volatile energy that comes from wind turbines is utility-grade energy storage (giant battery). Wind proponents would have us believe it’s just around the corner, another “pie-in-the-sky” solution.
“IT’S AN ILL WIND” is the unpublished but still powerful commentary from Dr. John Cowl and Dr. Stephanie Beling, both medical doctors. A psychiatrist, Cowl is able to dispel the claim that the perception of harm from wind turbines is imaginary.
It is time for the Commonwealth to use its many educational and scientific resources available to examine and resolve the medical problems that appear to be related to IWTs in Massachusetts. We don’t yet have any answers. It’s time we got some.
Kingston ZBA – The Hearing Continues
Wicked Local photo/Kathryn Gallerani
Zoning Enforcement Officer Paul Armstrong and Town Planner Tom Bott read through the packet that attorney Christopher Senie presented to the Zoning Board of Appeals last Wednesday night as Senie makes his case for the issuance of cease and desist orders for the Independence and O’Donnell wind turbines.
The June 20, 2012 Zoning Board of Appeals hearing got double coverage with reporter Kathryn Gallerani‘s pieces “Kingston neighbors of wind turbines complain of ill effects” (6/28/12) and “Kingston ZBA hearing opportunity to air wind turbine concerns” (7/3/12) appearing in Wicked Local Kingston. The hearing was continued to July 18, 2012 at 7:30 pm.
While the June hearing accepted wide-ranging public testimony, Gallerani reports that attorney Christopher Senie presented technical reasons for the ZBA to start the approval process over, which would allow conditions to be placed on the operation of the turbines.
Already, residents have reported health effects including sleep disruption and other symptoms.
Leland Road resident Dan Alves said he knew there had been talk of wind turbines, of efforts by the town’s Green Energy Committee to pursue green power, but he was not informed about what it would really mean to have these wind turbines near his home.
“Never would I have experienced what I have experienced – headaches, dizziness, vertigo,” he said.
Country Club Way resident Chris Dewitt said his heart aches at the impact these turbines have had on his family and his neighbors. He said he has been woken up early in the morning, around 3:30 a.m. one day and 4 a.m. the next, because of the turbines’ noise.
Tehachapi Turbine Trouble — Penny Melko will be on the program from Tehachapi to talk about the impacts of replacing small, older turbines with monsters. Are they really less impactful? The show will talk about planned future developments in that area.Tehachapi is notable for avian issues. It is the most likely area that California condors will be killed and has the world record setting golden eagle killing wind power plant.
Time out in the North East Kingdom of Vermont.
We are pleased to be joined by Kenn Stansky, the president of the Northeastern Vermont Development Association Board (NVDA). The NVDA just voted, almost unanimously, for a 3-year moratorium on wind development in the north east kingdom (NEK) area. WWR will ask Ken about what this means for the NEK now, what prompted the vote and why it received such strong support.
Regular listeners will recall that State Senator Joe Benning called for a moratorium at the state house during the closing days of the last legislative session. He is planning to do so again when they start back up. Click here to listen to the program when WWR interviewed Joe.
Gardner Prison Turbines Turned On Captive Population
Substation and wiring upgrades that delayed operation of the two turbines next to the prison in Gardner at the North Central Correctional Institution were complete last week according to George Barnes, reporting in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.
Research by Wind Wise ~ Massachusetts indicates the MassCEC gave the project a $1.25 million grant (out of rate payer and taxpayer funds it manages) to get started. The MA Department of Corrections is probably out the $1.7 million needed for National Grid to bring infrastructure up to industrial turbine capacities.
Wind Wise Advocates Monitor Legislation
Going to the state house to support common interests–in transparency in electric rates and in auditing the costs of green initiatives–Wind Wise members from 11 towns met with legislators on June 26, 2012. Individuals represented communities across the state, from the hilltowns, the islands, the Berkshires, and Cape Cod to Central Mass., the South Shore and the South Coast. The following day they could watch from the House gallery or on streaming video as the amendments for H4198 were voted. Transparency (amendment #28) and the Independent Commission to review cumulative costs (amendment #22) both passed. The effort to launch a health study of turbine effects on residents was defeated. There were no signs of elements of “WESRA lite,” now a bill with the number H4112. View a chart of the amendments and their outcome: H4198-amendments-6-26-12
Wind Wise ~ Massachusetts 