Former Perry Supervisor, now Horizon salesperson, Anne Humphrey's ad in last week's Perry Shopper was just more of the same typical of Big Wind sales pitches. Bless her heart, Ms. Humphrey is only saying what she needs to say to keep her job.
We found it particularly amusing that Ms. Humphrey said, "It's not all about the money," yet, that's ALL she talked about. She said "it's about what is right for the environment," yet didn't say a single word to substantiate how so.
To validate her claim, especially since it is the very reason the industry exists and is subsidized to the tune of up to 80% by we taxpayers & ratepayers in the first place, we're sure Ms. Humphrey will be glad to answer for us the same question we've been asking for years now: What independent, transparent measurement has been done anywhere in the world demonstrating that wind projects have actually offset significant levels of CO2 throughout an electricity grid system?
Ms. Humphrey swears that the admittedly temporary jobs will be filled by local hires. Yet, we recall Cohocton iron workers having to picket when they were NOT given the jobs.
Ms. Humphrey argues that these temporary 6-month jobs, and the possibility of a handful of permanent jobs, is an acceptable business plan somehow worth forever destroying our beautiful area and many of our fellow citizens' lives - all for an industry that can NOT do what they claim.
Others long-invested in wind tell the real story. Spain concluded in a recent study that 9 out of 10 jobs created in the wind industry are temporary, and for every job created, 2.2 jobs were lost in the rest of the economy. The price of their electricity has "skyrocketed", and their emissions have gone up by 50% since 2000.
Ms. Humphrey and her employer simply ignore the requirement of addressing alternatives. Perhaps Horizon is hoping nobody is paying attention to creative solutions like the local entrepeneur making Wind Tamers - a product that keeps the power and the money where it belongs - right here.
Ms. Humphrey's industry chooses to ignore the fact that the Department of Energy admitted when these machines were being developed that they were intended for placement in the remote, unpopulated areas of the Midwest, and offshore - not amongst rural/residential areas like that of WNY.
Ms. Humphrey says the average life expectancy of a turbine is 20-25 years. Yet, according to North American Wind Power, her industry's publication, the life-expectancy of these things is 13 years (Vol. 2: No. 12; Jan., 2006, p. 30). Even that is a stretch, considering the fact that Lackawanna's Steel Winds turbines were down and dismantled for repair/replacement for the second time in less than two years this summer.
Ms. Humphrey and her cohorts like to leave out pesky little facts like, "THE LANDOWNER WILL BE LIABLE!" (Attorney Daniel Spitzer)
Ms. Humphrey's employer still proposes 50 dBA as an acceptable sound level, despite the fact that 50 dBA DOUBLES our current night-time ambient noise levels of 25 dBA, and the NYS DEC clearly states in their "Assessing and Mitigating Noise Impacts" report, that an increase of 20 dBA will be "INTOLERABLE".
Most importantly, you'll never hear Ms. Humphrey & Horizon discuss the facts that Industrial Wind:
- has virtually NO Capacity Value;
- is NOT reliable or dispatchable;
- needs constant "shadow capacity", and therefore,
- can NOT replace any fossil fuel power plants.
The result: "Wind is simply an additional capital cost which proves to be more than twice as expensive for the ratepayer." (See "Calculating Wind Power's Environmental Benefits", by Tom Hewson & David Pressman)
So when wind industry reps take to slinging their "BULL" about the supposed wonders of wind, folks need to ask themselves (and their local, state, and federal politicians!):
- If wind power has no significant impact on the problem of CO2 emissions;
- If wind power causes electricity prices to "skyrocket," costing us 2-3 times as much as conventional energy sources;
- If wind power kills at least twice as many jobs as it creates;
- If wind power also has extraordinary additional costs due to significant adverse environmental, ecological, scenic, and personal health and property value impacts --
Why would any person in their right mind agree to this madness?
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