Florida Power & Light Co. has targeted S Hutchinson Island for an industrial wind power plant consisting of an initial 9 – 410 foot turbines on our public beaches and conservation land as well as on its property near the St. Lucie Nuclear Plant.
These types of industrial wind farms create an enormous amount of noise as well as constant shadow flickers during the day and strobes for aircraft at night. They are so huge that they are out of proportion to everything else and they dominate the landscape and can be seen from more than 30 miles away. They have destroyed the communities in which they have been built and have destroyed property values to the extent that homes have been demolished because people cannot live near them. In fact, wind turbine noise alone is such a big issue that there are international scientific conferences held each year on it.
See for yourself how loud they are and what they have done to the people unfortunate enough to live near them: http://www.wind-watch.org/videos.php
The sound recording at the bottom of the page is very helpful to give you an idea of what to expect. In our case, because the project is proposed on a barrier island and noise travels so well over water, the project is going to affect our area for miles around. Usually they build these plants in rural or uninhabited areas. This appears to be the first time they are proposing to place them in a populated area and on a barrier island where they will impact so many of us.
The worst part is that industrial sized wind plants are not even “green”. Because the output from the turbines is intermittent and variable and cannot be stored for later use, they can not be used to supply base energy for the grid and therefore other sources of energy cannot be taken offline. Industrial wind power does not reduce dependence on other fuels, does not reduce emissions or pollution and does not mitigate global warming. If not for the enormous federal tax subsidies and “green tags” that wind companies can sell (an invention of Enron), utilities would avoid such an unreliable and non-dispatchable source except in reliably windy locales. Because taxpayers pay for the cost of erecting and maintaining the turbines, however, giant turbines are extremely profitable. FPL made $2.2 billion dollars in 2002 and 2003 and paid zero federal income tax because of these tax subsidies and credits passed due in large part to the lobbying of the industrial wind industry with the help of a well meaning but uninformed populace.
You owe it to yourself and your community to educate yourself about industrial wind plants and then to educate others and our county commissioners:
http://www.presqueisle.org/audubon/conserv.html and http://www.wind-watch.org/ have great videos, diagrams and information that will give you a good idea of what to expect from this project. Our yahoo group, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Save_St_Lucie/, also has numerous links, scientific papers and a great discussion about the impact on our neighborhood and it will be a source of information about commission meetings, rallies and upcoming events. Join now to stay apprised of this issue so important to all of us here in St. Lucie County.
What you can do to help save our natural island environment and the beautiful views along Indian River Drive and A1A:
1) Join the "Save St. Lucie Alliance" in Yahoo Groups website, which is specifically targeting the windmill turbine issue. Go to 'yahoo groups.com" and type in: Save St Lucie. The site will come up and in the upper right hand corner is a box: to join as a member. No cost. Information and messages are on the site. We need as many people to sign up as possible just so we can show a strong membership to the commissioners.
2) Send a quick email ASAP to our governmental officials stating that you are AGAINST the installation of ALL windmill turbines on Hutchinson Island (even on the FPL nuke plant site). Below are the email addresses of the County Commissioners, Gov. Crist, Senator Pruitt and Rep Gayle Harrell. I have also included some points/issues below, that may help you compose.
St. Lucie Commissioners:
Charles Grande: liz@co.st-lucie.fl.us
Doug Coward: cowardd@co.st-lucie.fl.us
Chris Craft: liz@co.st-lucie.fl.us
Paula Lewis: barbarab@co.st-lucie.fl.us
Joe Smith: joe_smith@co.st-lucie.fl.us
(there is an 'underscore' after joe and before smith)
Governor Charlie Crist: www.flgov.com
Senator Ken Pruitt: pruitt.ken.s28@flsenate.gov
Representative Gayle Harrell: gayle.harrell@myfloridahouse.gov
3) Attend Commission Hearing: Contrary to statements in the newspapers, and although the published agenda for this coming Tuesday does not have any items related to FPL's wind turbine proposal, FPL is now lobbying the commission members to make a last minute addition to this Tuesday's agenda. On Tuesday, FPL expects your commissioners to (1) grant FPL permission to proceed with their soil testing/boring on our public beach properties, and (2) send a letter to the governor stating that the county has "no objection" to FPL moving forward with certain phases of the project. FPL of course has kindly offered to draft that letter for the commissioners. It is completely inappropriate for the commission to add this "stealth" agenda item without proper public notification, and thwart meaningful public comment on this very important subject.
Please contact the commissioners and let them know you oppose this addition to the agenda on such short notice - and if they won't postpone the discussion, please show up at 9:00 Tuesday morning to let the commissioners know how you feel in person!
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