Hearings and Votes around the State
In the glow of a successful launch of Wind Wise Radio on February 12th, the organizations around the state are gearing up for public events this week, with three on Wednesday alone.
The DEP/DPH panel report is the subject of open meetings on Tuesday and Thursday. Anyone who wants to dispel the impression that the recent press conference presented–industrial wind turbines have no health impacts–should try to attend in Boston on Tuesday from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm in the State House’s Gardner Auditorium or in Bourne on Thursday from 5:00 to 8:00 pm at Bourne High School, 75 Waterhouse Road. If this impression stands, towns will see no need to protect their citizens with noise regulations and setback requirements.
On Wednesday, citizens of three towns have important votes. In Fairhaven there is a Special Town Meeting with wind-related warrant articles. In Lenox, the Board of Selectmen will vote on turbine siting. In Plymouth a Zoning Board of Appeals hearing will be held.
For more on the junk science of the panel, read posts from January and Raymond Hartman’s explanation of the term as it relates to the panel’s work.
Nothing but Spin
The Valentine’s Day hearing on the the DEP/DPH panel report will be anything but a love-in. The panel was determined to discount or ignore any research that suggested health impacts. But they could not deny the lack of evidence that turbines are safe, so a frequent refrain of the report is “insufficient epidemiological studies” and “more studies needed.” This is the point Wind Wise ~ Massachusetts has been making. Do a real health study, not a literature review. Or better yet, listen to the people actually living with turbines.
The agencies entrusted with protecting people are instead protecting big wind and big political ambitions.
For more, read After turbine health “study,” state produces nothing but spin and join Wind Wise at Gardner Auditorium in the State House, 24 Beacon Street, Boston on Tuesday 2/14/12 from 10 am-1 pm
Shelburne Wind Information Series continues…
Ben Luce, former wind proponent, will make the case for preserving ridgelines from invasive industrial wind siting Saturday February 11 at 7:00 pm in Shelburne’s Memorial Hall. Dr. Luce is a Professor of Physics and Chair of the Sustainability Studies Program at Lyndon State College in Vermont. He will address the limits of onshore wind resources, the high cost of transmission and the large environmental impact. He will discuss wiser alternatives.
Wind Wise Radio airs Sunday nights at 7:00
Sunday night at 7:00 pm Wind Wise Radio Presents Talking Action with Lisa Linowes of Industrial Wind Action
Lisa Linowes is the founder and Executive Director of the Industrial Wind Action (IWA) Group, a national advocacy group, and is an expert on the impacts of industrial-scale wind energy development on the natural environment, communities, and the regional grid systems.
Linowes served as a member of the New Hampshire State Wind Energy Facility Siting Guidelines Working Group to determine guidelines for the siting of land-based wind turbines. The committee was focused on minimizing and avoiding impacts of large-scale wind development on wildlife and sensitive habitat areas. Ms. Linowes has been an active participant in the ISO-New England’s Scenario Planning Process to determine regional energy requirements to meet growing demand in the region.
At the local level, Linowes has been an active member of planning boards and conservation commissions for over ten years, having reviewed hundreds of development plans including wind energy facilities, large subdivisions, office buildings, and shopping complexes. She was awarded a NH Coverts Cooperator for promoting wildlife habitats conservation and forest stewardship.
Listen to past shows at Wind Wise Radio — last week’s edition featured Industrial Wind in the Wilds of Maine – Monique Aniel, David Corrigan, and Steve Thurston
Retire Costly Wind Subsidy–Federal Production Tax Credit
Massachusetts citizens who helped stop reauthorization of the section 1603 ARRA funding in December can help to stop renewal of the Production Tax Credit now.
Sign on to send your representatives and senators a message by emailing Lisa Linowes at lisa@linowes.com. The highlights are:
We urge you to vote NO on any further extensions of the Production Tax Credit (‘PTC’) for wind energy for these reasons:
High Cost: In many regions of the country the PTC now equals, or is greater than, the wholesale price of power. Since adopted in 1992, the cost of the PTC for wind energy has ballooned from $5 million a year in 1998 to over $1 billion annually today. This open-ended subsidy of 2.2¢/kWh in after-tax income represents a pre-tax value of approximately 3.7¢/kWh.
Even if the PTC were to sunset, taxpayers are still obligated to cover nearly $10 billion in tax credits for wind projects built in the last decade. This is in addition to the nearly $20 billion debt for wind projects eligible under Section 1603.
Job losses: Despite billions in public funding since 2008, the wind sector has reported a net loss of 10,000 direct and indirect jobs bringing the total to 75,000 jobs. It takes only 0.1 jobs per megawatt to operate a wind plant. Most of the sector’s jobs are temporary construction positions.
Inefficient: Since the PTC is uniform across the country it is highly inefficient, supporting poorly sited wind development in some areas while in other areas supporting projects that would have been built regardless of the credit. This is true in Texas and the Pacific Northwest where wind generation exceeds transmission capacity. In New England the PTC overpays investors since utilities routinely sign long-term contracts for wind at prices significantly above market.
Wind sector slow-down not tied to the PTC: The wind industry insists it’s at risk of a slow-down without the PTC and jobs will be lost. But this view ignores crucial factors driving development in the U.S. Demand for wind has eroded, in part, due to states meeting their renewable mandates. Lower natural gas prices have further reduced wind’s attractiveness as a ‘fuel saver’. Faced with these market conditions, wind developers are tabling projects. The EIA now forecasts flat growth in the wind sector for this decade regardless of what happens with the PTC.
The PTC is nothing more than an earmark that lines the pockets of project owners and tax-advantaged investors while skewing the energy market and artificially masking the real cost of wind power. It’s time for the production tax credit to expire.
Send this message yourself or give your name and address, your permission, and indicate who your representative is; Lisa Linowes will add your name to the others from Massachusetts who want to end this costly earmark.
Forums past and future
Windwise-Fairhaven hosts a forum on Tuesday, February 7 at the Fairhaven VFW. Invited speakers include Eleanor Tillinghast and panelists Bob Espindola, Mark Cool, Dawn Devlin, and Curt Devlin. Bring questions. Louise Barteau’s tour of several turbines last weekend raised questions for her: why was the turbine at the Gardner correctional facility not running, what do neighbors experience living next to the Templeton school turbine, and are these machines cost-effective?
The Cape Cod Commission’s meeting on Thursday February 2, 2012 is presented in two youtube segments. Attorney Chris Senie dissects the DEP/DPH Health Panel’s report, and Cape residents Chris Kapsembelis, Sheila Bowen, and others are seen in part two. In part one, the presentations of New Generation Wind and state officials are shown.
It’s coming…
Wind Wise Radio’s first internet session will be Sunday February 12 at 7:00 pm.
Stay tuned.
Junk Science and the Natural Experiment
An MIT-trained mathematical economist from Shelburne who runs Greylock McKinnon Associates, an economic consulting firm, takes exception to the “The Wind Turbine Health Impact Study.” Calling it Junk Science, Raymond S. Hartman outlines the bases for mistrusting the conclusions the DEP/DPH expert panel reached.
Junk science is faulty scientific data and analysis used to advance special interests and hidden agendas.
The DEP/DPH panel could have called for the needed epidemiological study, but instead the “experts” discounted existing scholarly evidence and called vaguely for further study. The open comment period for responses to the report ends on March 19, 2012.
Residents of Massachusetts towns where industrial wind turbines are proposed are fortunate to have Falmouth residents speaking out about their experiences. In places where commercial rather than municipal turbines have been sited, leaseholders and abutters are often silenced by gag clauses. This has been an impediment to researchers of wind health effects.
Canadian Researcher Confronts Gaps in DEP Panel Report
Carmen Krogh from Ontario Canada has weighed in on the science panel’s study. She insists that “There is ample evidence regarding the health risks associated with industrial wind turbines.”
Citing a wind industry statement that contradicts the expert’s panel findings, Krogh points out that
In 2009 The American Wind Energy Association and Canadian Wind Energy Association funded experts to conduct a literature review which explicitly identifies a causal link (through annoyance) to the reported adverse health effects.
The authors of the industry convened report determined the documented “wind turbine syndrome” symptoms ( sleep disturbance, headache, tinnitus, ear pressure, dizziness, vertigo, nausea, visual blurring, tachycardia, irritability, problems with concentration and memory, and panic episodes associated with sensations of internal pulsation or quivering when awake or asleep are symptoms) “are not new and have been published previously in the context of ‘annoyance’” and are the “well-known stress effects of exposure to noise.”
This acknowledgement cannot be ignored.
Krogh has done research with self-reporting of wind turbine-induced symptoms and has extensive experience in the Canadian health care field as a pharmacist (now retired). She contributed her response to the DEP docket WindTurbineDocket.MassDEP@MassMail.State.MA.US, which is open for comments until March 19, 2012.
Falmouth residents rebut wind panel findings
Forums This Week in Fairhaven and Shelburne
Tuesday 1/24/12 Fairhaven 7:00 PM Hastings Middle School on School Street
The forum is for the town and the Windwise-Fairhaven group to present information and concerns about a proposed turbine project. The developer and selectmen must weigh the dilemma of local residents’ concerns against the costs and contracts that have been entered into on the assumption the project would go ahead. Windwise is concerned that the recently-released wind science study has glossed over the adverse health impacts neighbors would experience if turbines are erected.
Saturday 1/28/12 Shelburne Falls 7:00 PM Memorial Hall on Bridge Street
The program features two residents of Falmouth, Annie Hart Cool and Neil Andersen, along with Nina Pierpont (via skype). Dr. Pierpont is a physician and author of Wind Turbine Syndrome. Andy Wells of Ashfield will moderate. This is part of the Shelburne – Buckland Industrial Wind Information Series. The series is free and open to the public.
Wind Wise ~ Massachusetts 