(I know, how cliche’!) The Answer is Blowing in the Wind
I was inspired by Sahar’s Green Post to do this one, that I’ve been thinking about ever since I read about it in the Summer edition of NRDC’s On Earth.
It’s 1999, a stranger arrives in a small town in Lewis County, Lowville, NY-more cows than people. This stranger, Bill Moore begins the task of selling the locals, mostly dairy farmers, on the notion of wind power. Knocking on doors, attending town meetings, these people are not an easy sell.
Eight years later, though, it’s as if the cool reception Moore received never happened at all. Windmills stud the flat, stark landscape as far as the eye can see. Each turbine is taller than the Statue of Liberty, and nearly all of them are spinning inexorably toward the future of Lewis County — and perhaps our own. This is the Maple Ridge Wind Farm, the nation’s largest new alternative energy project east of the Mississippi River. In the last year or so, 195 turbines have become operational in the towns of Lowville, Harrisburg, and Martinsburg, capable of producing 320 megawatts of electricity, the amount generated by a medium-size power plant, or enough power to run 98,000 homes.
Call me a cock-eyed-optimist, but I’m excited about this. The economy in Lowville was in decline. Farmers were in debt trying to keep their farms running. Guaranteed income of about $6,000 dollars per turbine on your property makes wind power a win-win situation for this town.
I realize that one of the objections of 400ft wind turbines is the noise they make, but according to this,it is no more objectionable than traffic noise and less bothersome than the noise from most industries.
And for those of you who are concerned about avian deaths as a result of wind turbine collisions, here is an excellent study to peruse.
It seems, for many people, what they like the least about wind power is the interference with their “scenic vistas”, I submit that a wind turbine blowing serenely in the wind, providing us with continual, renewable, non-polluting power can be a thing of beauty and can be aesthetically pleasing as a hope for our future and our children’s future.
And just to finish up, watch this You Tube Video from Groovy Green. They say it so much better than I and are able to sneak manbearpig in there before you can blink. Seriously-watch the video.
Stay tuned for Solar-Power!
Very entertaining video, thanks.
Oh, you know, I hate to have to say it, ‘cuz I am a BIG wind fan, too…. but, the Lowville story is not as simple and straightforward and positive as it appears on the surface (which is how it is often told). Bill Moore was not just selling an idea to the farmers whose land the wind farms are on, he was selling the idea to the state government, and to municipal officials statewide. And, he was not using only the wind company’s money to do it, either….
You see, Maple Ridge wind farm is the only industrial facility in NYS to be located in an Empire Zone comprised of a number of polka-dots spread across the countryside, a little circle under each turbine. Therefore, the real property taxes that are paid to Lowville, etc. on these rather expensive capital-heavy/labor-light installations are picked up by…. YOU and ME, Jane and Joe NYS taxpayer. The construction HAS brought a bunch of economic activity, but, we will all still be paying their tax bill long after the last turbine is errected, and there are just a handful of jobs left monitoring their operation.
Now, in theory, I would be all for subsidizing the development of wind energy– but, the Empire Zone program was a really inappropriate policy tool to use… and, in fact, the Leg. has closed that particular loophole.
Watch out for how the political consensus to develop wind gets formed. It can really effect things long-haul. I really like the idea of wind farms on public property, either state or municipal, and sharing the benefit through the public sector directly, rather than subsidizing developers to do so on private land– less corruption opportunity, and greater public benefits.
I would certainly need more information, but I, as a tax payer have no problem subsidizing this. Happy to subsidize anything to keep the planet from going under so my progeny live on.
[...] would make them appear to be progressively leaning toward renewable energy, and as you could tell, from a previous post, I’m all for that. But local wind-farms may not be what they’re cracked up to be (and I [...]