Ed. Note: The Great Lakes “Icebreaker” project, with $13 million of DOE/taxpayer money wasted, is a boondoggle waiting to end. Yet the Chicago Tribune tries to gin up hope for an expanded project to prop up the Net Zero narrative. Sherri Lange of North American Platform Against Wind Power and Great Lakes Wind Truth responds in her letter-to-the-editor below.

Dear Editor

I read the piece by Nora Schoenberg, Illinois may be up to bat next to build first Great Lakes wind farm after Cleveland drops project (Chicago Tribune), with interest.

We respectfully point out that the Icebreaker failed for numerous reasons, not all financial, not all regulatory.

The mass outpouring of objections, literally from the entire globe, it is certain had some impact on the OPSB (Ohio Power Siting Board), and in 2014, then Chair Todd Snitchler agreed with many objectors, showed that the bench line for safe harbor for the project had not been achieved.…

“It would appear in our recent work that the major level of disturbance occurs during the change in the power output of the windfarm and that the percentage of the change is significantly less than that presented in Cape Bridgewater.”

“In Australia, residents can plot the output of an individual windfarm and identify the change in outputs that may be giving rise to the disturbance they are experiencing, which was shown in the Cape Bridgewater study.”

Master Resource has tracked the ongoing research of acoustical engineer Stephen Cooper into vibrations and infrasound (low frequency noise) from industrial wind turbines on nearby residents. [1] Cooper has been part of the wind power debate since his 2014 pathbreaking study of the Cape Bridgewater Wind Farm in southwest Victoria in Australia (also see here).…

“Soon enough, citizens and voters will wise up to the false promises and cronyism of political energy. MasterResource will be an intellectual resource to help win the day for the master resource and the human ingenuity behind it.”

There is life outside of energy research and related public policy. I discovered some of it during the last ten days with limited responsibilities on the avocation/vocation front. But it is time to re-engage–and take time to look back and forward.

A Look Back

MasterResource, “a free market energy blog,” just turned twelve years old. In our inaugural post (December 26, 2008), I wrote:

We are just getting started here, but some of us veterans of the energy debate from a private property, free-market perspective have teamed together to offer our thoughts on late breaking energy items.

“Lake Erie is the Saudi Arabia of wind … represent[ing] 20 percent of the United States’ total offshore wind energy capacity.” (Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, May 18, 2016)

As we fear for the countless flying animals facing massive slaughter, we are equally fearful that this “demonstration project” is the beginning of the end of the Great Lakes for any other purpose than an industrial power facility spanning multiple states and two countries. (Suzanne Albright, letter of May 31, 2020, below)

One of the most carefully crafted [OPSB] stipulations [requires] the developer to curtail, or “feather” turbines at “night” for eight months of the year. The developer calls this a financial “poison pill.” (below)

On May 21, 2020, the Ohio Power Siting Board (OPSB) unanimously granted a certificate of approval to LEEDCo/Icebreaker, a 6-turbine, 20.7 MW (3.45 MW per turbine) “demonstration” project eight miles offshore Cleveland.…