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[sundubuman]

Feds deflate Midwestern wind farms

by Staff
RELATED NEWS:

Radar interference a screen, critics say.

CHICAGO - The federal government has stopped work on more than a dozen wind farms planned across the Midwest, saying research is needed on whether the giant turbines could interfere with military radar.

But backers of wind power say the action has little to do with national security. The real issue, they say, is a group of wealthy vacationers who think a proposed wind farm off the coast of Cape Cod would spoil the view at their summer homes.

Opponents of the Cape Wind project include several influential members of Congress. Critics say their latest attempt to thwart the planting of 130 turbines in Nantucket Sound has led to a moratorium on wind farms hundreds of miles away in the Midwest.

Federal officials refused to reveal how many stop-work orders have been sent out. But developers say at least 15 wind farm proposals in the Midwest have been shut down by the Federal Aviation Administration since the beginning of the year.

The list of stalled projects includes one outside Bloomington, Ill., that would be the nation�s largest source of wind energy, generating enough juice to power 120,000 homes in the Chicago area. The developer had planned to begin installing turbines this summer and start up the farm next year.

"This is a big, ugly political maneuver by a handful of people who are undermining America�s energy security," said Michael Vickerman, executive director of RENEW Wisconsin, a not-for-profit group that promotes renewable power.

Vickerman and others noted that despite the government�s recent concern about proposed wind projects, it is allowing dozens of existing wind farms to continue to operate within sight of radar systems.

The bureaucratic entanglements come as President George W. Bush is encouraging more wind power as a solution to the skyrocketing prices of oil and natural gas, as well as environmental problems such as global warming. During a speech in Milwaukee three months ago, Bush said wind turbines eventually could provide 20 percent of the nation�s energy needs.

Harnessing the wind is a clean and relatively inexpensive way to generate electricity without the troublesome byproducts of coal or nuclear power. But the vast collections of turbines - some of which reach 40 stories tall - are derided by opponents as unreliable and unsightly.

Of the scores of projects proposed around the country, perhaps the most controversial has been Cape Wind, which if approved would be the first offshore wind farm in the United States.

Most of the opposition focuses on the proposed location in the channel between Cape Cod and Martha�s Vineyard, the bucolic Massachusetts vacation areas frequented by many high-profile celebrities, business executives and politicians.

Critics include members of the Kennedy family, whose summer compound is on Cape Cod. Both Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., and his nephew, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., have said the turbines would spoil the ocean views, threaten the local tourist economy and endanger migratory birds.

Another opponent is U.S. Sen. John Warner, R-Va., who has tried several times to block the Cape Wind project. In a 2002 letter to the Army Corps of Engineers, Warner included a handwritten note saying he often visits Cape Cod, which he called a "national treasure."

But the project continued to move forward until late last year, when Warner, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, slipped an amendment into a military spending bill. The one-sentence congressional order directs the Department of Defense to study whether wind towers could mask the radar signals of small aircraft.

Since then, at the defense department�s behest, the FAA has been blocking any new wind turbines within the scope of radar systems that are used by the military.

"This has nothing to do with wind," said Michael Polsky, president and chief executive officer of Invenergy, a Chicago company with projects in Illinois and Wisconsin that have been blocked by the government. "It has everything to do with politics."

Warner�s office did not return telephone calls seeking comment. A spokesman previously released a statement saying the defense department study "ensures that Congress will possess as much information as possible on wind farms� impact on military operations."

[Kuros]

[sundubuman]

15 whole wind farm projects in the midwest have stalled because of these east coast bluebloods wanting to preserve their precious cape cod, to which many fly private airplanes(think kennedys), or are chauffered to in limos, or hop in their belching SUV's.....and then they preach environmental protection.

makes me sick.

[huffdaddy]

[sundubuman]

and isn't it ironic that the effort to squelch the cape wind project, the largest wind project in the northeast, is none other than Ted Kennedy, who accuses over and over again the Bush admoinistration of favoring policies that help the oil and gas industries

(it's also interesting to note that under Bush, wind energy, solar energy, biofuels and ethanol have all been undergoing phenomonal growth.....meanwhile Kennedy fights a renewable energy project in his own backyard, what a blubbering hypocrite. I truly despise that man)

[sundubuman]

New Poll: 81% of state, 61% of Cape favor Cape Wind

New survey shows strong majority of Cape and islands' residents support Nantucket Sound project

By Jack Coleman, capecodtoday correspondent

The results of a new survey released today leave little doubt as to public support for Cape Wind - it is overwhelming.

More than four out of five people across the state - 81 percent - and 61 percent of Cape and islands' residents are in favor of Cape Wind's proposal to build the nation's first offshore wind farm in Nantucket Sound.

The survey was conducted by the Civil Society Institute, a Newton-based non-profit and non-partisan think tank. The institute has conducted a half-dozen surveys since 2003 on global warming, renewable energy and fuel efficiency standards.

A detailed analysis of the survey and news release are available at the society's website.

The May 25-28 survey found that 90 percent of Bay State residents want Massachusetts to be "a national leader in using cleaner and renewable energy on a large scale by moving ahead with offshore wind power and other alternative-energy initiatives."

90% of Bay State residents want Massachusetts to be "a national leader in using cleaner and renewable energy on a large scale by moving ahead with offshore wind power and other alternative-energy initiatives."

The survey also found that just over a third - 36 percent - of Cape and island residents oppose Cape Wind, while 88 percent of those living on Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard believe it is important that "Massachusetts and other states take steps such as the development of clean alternative energy resouces -- including offshore wind power -- in order to help reduce global warming and our addiction to foreign energy sources."

Clean Power Now Executive Director Matt Palmer pointed out that each successive opinion survey on Cape Wind appears to show a stronger level of public support for Cape Wind, both statewide and on the Cape and islands.

"It validates what we've been saying all along, which is the more that people learn about Cape Wind, the more that people support it," Palmer said. "Our political leaders need to recognize that the citizens of this commonwealth want Massachusetts to be the leader in the renewable energy revolution."

Poll-takers urge Romny, Kennedy and Kerry to read results

Responding to the results of the survey, Institute President Pam Solo said "I would encourage Gov. Romney, Senator Kennedy, Senator Kerry and the rest of the Mass. congressional delegation to look at these survey findings very closely.

"The notion that wind power and the other alternative energy sources are dividing lines in Massachusetts either in terms of politics or region, or both, is plainly mistaken and counterproductive for our state and for the nation," Solo said.

"What we see in this survey is a clear example of the people 'leading the leaders' "
- Pam Solo

"What we see in this survey is a clear example of the people 'leading the leaders,' " Solo said. "Massachusetts residents want action now on clean, safe renewable energy sources, including Cape Wind and other alternative energy projects. They want the state to get out in front as a true national leader solving our foreign oil dependence and the threat posed by global warming."

About the survey - twice needed number from Cape & Islands polled

The survey consisted of telephone interviews with 600 Bay State residents, equally spilt by gender, on May 25-28. Of that 600-person sample, 9 percent lived on the Cape and islands, which comes to 54 people. The survey has a 4 percentage points margin of error, according to CSI.

The results also showed that political allegiances play little if any role in determining support for Cape Wind. Across the state as a whole, 88 percent of those identifying themselves as liberals are in favor of Cape Wind, compared to 83 percent for conservatives and 81 percent for independents.

Supporters were;
Conservatives 83%
Liberals 88%
Independents 81%

Just over third - 36 percent - of Bay State residents described themselves as political independents, compared to 26 percent conservative, 20 percent liberal and 14 percent "not political."

The 600-person sampling is representative of many opinion surveys, as is its margin of error. While 9 percent of those interviewed said they live on the Cape and islands, as a percentage this is double the percentage for the region's share of the state's population. Roughly 250,000 of the state's 6.1 million residents live on Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, or 4 percent.

The survey results were released just one day after Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens formally withdrew his proposal to give unilateral veto power over Cape Wind to the governor of Massachusetts. Stevens prefers that such authority be given to the commandant of the Coast Guard in a funding bill that has yet to be approved in Congress.

Indications out of Washington are that the House and Senate could move forward on the Coast Guard bill with a possible resolution of differences over Cape Wind when they return next week.

US Dept. of Energy and wind industry plan 20% of energy from wind

Also on Tuesday, officials with the US Department of Energy and wind industry entrepreneurs said they will collaborate on an "action plan" aimed at "vastly increasing the amount of wind-generated electricity in the United States," according to a story published yesterday by the Greenwire news service.

"The effort - announced at a major wind energy conference in Pittsburgh - will seek input from environmentalists, utilities, policymakers, investors and others, according to the American Wind Energy Association," the story states.

The goal is to increase wind power's share of US electricity generation to 20 percent from its current level of less than half of 1 percent. AWEA expects 2006 to be a record year for new installed capacity.

[Kuros]

[Nowhere Man]

Well, according to what we read, the reason is that it interferes with radar.

[Ya-ta Boy]

Since a wind farm would be in a fixed location covering a finite area, it shouldn't be all that difficult to reorganize radar coverage of that area.

[Octavius Hite]

The best part of this is that is that even if they can see the windmills from the coast it will look like tiny sticks. It will be very hard to see anything at all. This fight has been going on for sometime and it is unlikely to end anytime soon.

[bucheon bum]

[Kuros]

[igotthisguitar]

[ontheway]

Up to the 1930s, windpower was commonly found on farms and in rural areas across America. Basically, every farm and many non-farm homesteads had windmills. Although this was used as a directly applied form of mechanical energy, and not to generate electricity, the technology of windmills that was in use at that time, and that could and would have been developed in a gradual process over the decades since into electrical and mechanical energy sources, could have become a major source in our modern energy mix. These windmills, of course, would be individually owned as they were at the time - in other words, off the grid. Unfortunately, the wind energy industry was killed by FDR and his fascist/socialist regime. All of our energy problems come from the intervention of the government. It is no surprise to see the pols doing it again.

Democrats favor centrally generated, government controlled systems, that just happen to be owned by their supporters, in all areas of the economy. The Republicans tend to do the same. Only a very few members of Congress actually support the Constitution, the free market, and the principles of liberty. (Actually, I know of only one.)