The American Wind Energy Association (‘AWEA’) claims big wind had a spectacular 2015, but we looked past the slick advertising and found the same AWEA rhetoric with extra pixie dust applied.

According to the American Wind Energy Association (“AWEA”) big wind had a spectacular 2015.

Jobs were up 20%, emissions down, more wind megawatts were installed than any other fuel source, and happy landowners pocketed a cool $222 million for their trouble. The media dutifully sang America’s good fortune. Imagine: a last Congressional vote in December mandating $15.8 billion in wind PTC payouts and everything is now right as rain. That is, until you look past the slick advertising and realize the boasted gains are nothing more than AWEA rhetoric with extra pixie dust applied.

The “Jobs Game”

The industry touted 15,000 jobs added in 2015, bringing the total to 88,000, including 1,800 new manufacturing positions.[1]…

“The [Large Wind Energy Facility] Applicant shall assure the Town that there will be no loss in real property value within two miles of each wind turbine within their LWEF. To legally support this claim, the Applicant shall consent in writing to a Real Property Value Protection Agreement as a condition of approval for the LWEF. This Agreement shall provide assurance to non-participating real property owners (i.e. those with no turbines on their property) near the LWEF, that they have some protection from LWEF-related real property values losses.”

As Master Resource readers know, the Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions (AWED) promotes sound scientific solutions. One of our main interests is to provide communities encountering proposals for industrial wind-energy installations reliable, up-to-date information (see WiseEnergy.org) and protection.

Based on our recent work with some New York communities, a model wind ordinance law has been devised for use in other locals.…

“For a long time to come—until all energies used to produce wind turbines and photovoltaic cells come from renewable energy sources—modern civilization will remain fundamentally dependent on fossil fuels.”

– Vaclav Smil, “What I See When I See a Wind Turbine (March 2016).

Vaclav Smil, distinguished professor emeritus at the University of Manitoba, has published 37 books and almost 500 papers on “the fields of energy, environmental and population change, food production and nutrition, technical innovation, risk assessment, and public policy.”

One of the great energy experts of our age, Smil’s output easily rivals whole US Department of Energy laboratories which, incidentally, are easy candidates for elimination under a new political regime.

This month, Dr. Smil’s published a short piece in IEEE Spectrum titled “What I See When I See a Wind Turbine.”…

“I could work my way through 49 years of observing sleep disturbances and deprivation, but that is more than the scope of this letter. I am writing because I have witnessed Town of Falmouth officials and members of other boards trivialize symptom reports from people who are stalwart residents of the Town of Falmouth…. Furthermore, all the Wind I neighbors I have examined are passionate about the need for sustainable energy in an effort to reduce fossil fuel dependence.”

The human nervous system is the most sensitive instrument available to date for evaluating the impact of the Falmouth wind turbines on residents who live close to them. The ONLY experts in the discussion are the people who are sensing the sound, vibrations, pressure waves, etc. emitted by the turbines. There is no one more “expert “than these people.…