Dr. Thorndike, since you made it clear that you simply did not understand the fact that we felt that most of our questions did NOT receive adequate answers at the 6/16/09 meeting, I am reitterating just a few more of the questions we've been asking for years now, that still have NOT been answered:
1.) How many industrial wind turbines, scattered over how many square miles of permanently disfigured landscapes & fragmented habitats, will it take to collectively deliver a Capacity Value equivalent to any conventional generating system — defining Capacity Value as the ability to produce specified amounts of energy at a specified rate at any time?
As I explained in my first of the only two question opportunities I was allowed that day, Mr. Bailey did not correctly answer the question as it was asked. The question asks for the land mass & number of turbines needed to deliver a "Capacity Value" equivalent to a conventional generating system, not a figure representing an "Installed Capacity" - as he provided. Mr. Bailey also used "30 acres per turbine" to determine his calculation, when, as I cited that day, developers here have been quoted as saying that each turbine requires 100 acres. Instead of an answer, my question was dismissed with the reply, "We'll take that as a comment."
2.) Unbelievably important, but never even touched upon at any of the meetings, or on NYSERDA's website, is the fact that the United States wastes more energy making electricity than it takes to run all of Japan. Considering that it is nearly criminal to be adding new generation given the magnitude of such thermal losses (especially for the inimical, unreliable, volatile source of wind), what is NYSERDA doing to address Waste Heat from electric power plants? (See: http://www.chpcenterpr.org/wasteheat2power07/PDF/TCasten%20presentation.pdf)
3.) Since the U.S. DOE designed and specified that these 400+ foot industrial towers were meant for installation in Texas and on the Great Plains - not in populated areas such as rural/residential NYS, why is NYSERDA totally disregarding the original appropriate placement recomendations for the size and scale of these machines, and any adequate setback recomendations which would ensure that the people they work for, New York State citizens, were being protected?
4.) Since the Attorney General's suggested General Ethics Code of Conduct for industrial wind developers is intended to protect NYS citizens - the very people NYSERDA is employed to serve, why doesn't NYSERDA make signing this Code of Ethics agreement MANDATORY before industrial wind developers are allowed to do business in NYS?
5.) Since Big Wind LLC's are using public money to fund these projects (65%+ with federal tax breaks and subsidies, and another 10% with State incentives), then why are they allowed to withhold output information as "proprietary", when public funds = public information?
6.) Since wind industry LLC's go to great lengths to declare that property values will NOT be affected by industrial wind installations, why doesn't NYSERDA recommend the creation and adoption of "Property Value Protection Plans" to protect NYS citizens?
And finally, in my brief sampling of still unanswered questions, and as I asked at the meeting in my second of only two question opportunities I was allowed that day, while again receiving the reply, "We'll take that as a comment":
7.) Why aren't we looking at, and considering, what has been proven to be an unproductive experience in other countries long-invested in industrial wind before making the same expensive mistake here in the U.S.???
A recent Spanish study by researcher Gabriel Alvarez at King Carlos University in Madrid concluded that Spain's mad rush to meet overly aggressive renewable standards has destroyed jobs. For every job created in the wind industry, 2.2 jobs were lost in the rest of the economy. Even worse is the fact that only one in 10 of those wind energy jobs was permanent. (See: http://www.wind-watch.org/documents/uploads/Calzada-Spain-jobs-renewables.pdf and http://www.wind-watch.org/documents/uploads/Calzada-Spain-renewables-boom-bust.ppt )
Consider the fact that the U.S. Cap & Trade Bill currently being proposed contains a mandate that anyone who loses their 'new' renewable job will get 3 years unemployment, health care, and job re-training - exposing the fact that it is known that this bill will lose jobs in the long run.
The end result in Spain: Investing in wind has driven up Spain's real cost of electricity, while carbon emissions have increased 50% since 2000 according to data from the European Environment Agency.
The irony is that Spain's entire renewable industry was built on the promise of creating millions of new, high-paying "green jobs" while simultaneously meeting requirements for cutting carbon emissions - the same political agendas NYSERDA is now unquestioningly pursuing. Where is the common sense in ignoring the expensive lessons already learned by others???
Dr, Thorndike, if industrial wind power has no significant impact on the problem of CO2 emissions; if wind causes electricity prices to "skyrocket" - costing us two to three times as much as conventional sources of energy; if wind kills at least twice as many jobs as it creates; and, if wind also has extraordinary additional costs due to significant adverse environmental, ecological, scenic, and personal health and property value impacts --
Then why would any person in their right mind agree to this madness?
Please see the Citizens' Questions Document for the complete list of questions we are seeking answers to: tinyurl.com/kkkuqz .
Mary Kay Barton
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