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Previous writer was off base regarding turbines
Credit: Lewistown Sentinel | May 29, 2014 | lewistownsentinel.com ~~
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In his letter to the editor, Jason Lynn Sr. states that the idea that we do not need wind turbines on Jacks Mountain is laughable. He further says that what he believes and his following argument is based on facts.
He says, “One fact that nobody has addressed is our nation’s growing need for renewable energy.” In reality, since Jimmy Carter, tens of billions of taxpayers dollars have been spent, and continue to be spent, on wind energy subsidies and development. With all of this taxpayer cost, in 2013, about 4 percent of our electricity was produced by wind.
His blaming the oil spill and its devastation to the Gulf Coast on “lack of regulations” is mystifying and belies the fact that it was misled government control that prevented local efforts in containing the spill damage.
Mr. Lynn’s statement that only “modest amounts of natural gas” is produced does not fit the facts that about 30 percent of the electricity in the United States is produced from natural gas and about 22 percent of all energy used is from natural gas.
His comparison of cell towers to industrial wind turbines for destructive potential to birds is like comparing a bath tub to the ocean for its potential to drown. A cell tower with no moving parts might be 50 feet wide. A 2.3 megawatt wind turbine sweeps over 80,000 square feet of space as the blades rotate at speeds up to 100 mph at the blade tips.
The clinching claim that nullified and made Mr. Lynn’s whole argument unworthy of any consideration was that “renewable sources receive no federal subsidies.” The fact is that taxpayers pay wind producing companies $22 per megawatt hour of wind-produced electricity. Without this payment, wind turbines cannot be competitive in the industry. In 2013, while the future of this subsidy was in question, few to no new turbines were built in the United States.
To claim that destroying the beauty of the ridge line of Jacks Mountain, and all of its benefits to nature and mankind is necessary to protect our environment, nullifies any claims of being a logical environmentalist. Illogical and agenda-driven environmentalists are the reason we are not both energy independent and using all available sources of energy, including wind and solar, in an environmentally friendly way.
The place for industrial wind turbines is not in the marginally useful wind conditions of the ridge line of Jacks Mountain.
Don Wert
Belleville
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