February 3, 2008
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
RE: Stimulus Bill provisions on energy tax breaks
Dear Senator:
CWW strongly objects to the inclusion of industrial wind tax extensions in the Stimulus Bill which is being considered. While supporting many forms of alternative energy such as biomass, hydro, landfill gas, and solar; Cohocton Wind Watch urges the Senate to strip out any preferential incentives for ill-conceived and improperly sited wind projects.
Industrial wind projects provide intermittent power, at best; which requires conventional power stations to operate and remain in service. Most of the electricity from wind turbines is produced at night in cold months, not on hot weekday late afternoons in July and August when electricity demand reaches peak levels.
The inconsistent wind patterns in most of the Mid-Atlantic region means that wind projects can only provide negligible useful electricity. Yet, large scale use of wind turbines requires upgrading of the electricity grid, more complex grid management, and operation of additional thermal power stations to protect against power cuts in time of supply failure. These effects increase the cost of electricity supplied by the grid in addition to the capital, maintenance and operating costs of this inefficient technology.
Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) cannot be justified for an uneconomical wind industry. REC prices should be adjusted based on a project's actual supply of electricity not energy capacity (i.e. time of day, time of year, and location adjustments).
In New England energy on the grid is already priced based on its ability to supply capacity near load. In other words, a plant that produces electricity at 2pm in August gets paid more for its energy than the guy supplying at 2am in January. Why doesn’t federal legislation demand that the wind industry conform to the same standard?
The presence of ex-Enron executives, foreign ownership and questionable business practices has lead to the filing of an Anti-trust complaint, DA criminal probe and an AG investigation into the wind industry in New York State. The pattern of a culture of corruption is at the core of the numerous bribe allegations and political payoffs. This has lead to scores of legal actions in every state where the wind industry has encroached upon residential areas. Inadequate turbine siting places public health and safety at serious risk.
CWW urges you to accept the House version of the Stimulus Bill. The Daily Herald cites the burden if wind credits are added to the bill: “if they were to continue over 10 years the cost to the government would be $5.75 billion, according to the Finance Committee.”
Cohocton Wind Watch has hundreds of member supporters and well over 100,000 viewers of our web site: http://cohoctonwindwatch.org/
Regards,
James Hall for CWW
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