Editor note: Yesterday’s post described media coverage of an application by Invenergy to construct up to one hundred 600-foot-tall wind turbines in three counties in western New York. Today’s post reproduces remarks given at the hearing on this application (subtitles have been added for clarity).

“Invenergy will … cut corners, skirt obligations, bully oppositional viewpoints and do anything they can to cram this project in, all in the name of alleged green energy. The only think green about this project is the money flowing into Invenergy’s pocket in the form of wasteful taxpayer subsidies.”

My name is Ginger Schroder.  I and my husband own and reside on a working farm that specializes in heritage and exotic breed poultry in Farmersville New York.  My town is a proposed “host” town.

Public Participation Issues

A brief word about public participation. …

“Opposition ranges from concerns about the effects of turbine noise on neighbors, degradation of the quality of life in the area where turbines will be sited, conflicts of interest on the part of elected town officials regarding the project, destruction of forest areas by construction and harm to bats and birds because of the blades.” (“Public Hearings Tuesday on Alle-Catt Wind Farm,” Olean Times Herald, June 7, 2019)

A article this week in the Olean Times Herald is an interesting look at what is going on with industrial wind at the grassroots. Jim Eckstrom reports from western New York where Chicago-based Invenergy proposes to erect up to one hundred 600-foot tall turbines in three western New York counties: Allegany, Cattaraugus, and Wyoming.

After announcing the meeting specifics, Eckstrom lays out the issues in a way that indicates, clearly, that this is a debate that is joined.…

Bradley has tackled a vast and dynamic energy landscape through the big prism of Enron. He was wise to include necessary contexts for 15 chapters of markets and personalities. Navigating FERC deregulation orders over a decade was a fearsome writing task, done well. Pipeline and power plant deals at home and abroad; solar, wind, and other alternative energies, the list goes on. Politics in Austin, Washington, DC, and foreign capitals. Enron was everywhere.

Robert L. Bradley Jr. has written a very important book about Houston’s most controversial company. This is the first of a two-volume corporate biography chronicling the rise, fall, and aftermath of Enron; his tetralogy has already produced a book on worldview (Capitalism at Work: 2009) and prehistory (Edison to Enron: 2011).

Few observers have been as ideally located to chronicle this modern-day version of a Greek tragedy.…

More than just audible sound, grinding, whomping, blade pass whooshes, an ever-present hum, industrial wind turbines have a silent, below audible impact. It is not like a day contamination/harm at work where people can go home at night for relief. With industrial wind projects literally engulfing homes and rural areas, there is little or no escape.

Wind turbines appear to be at the apex of producing human discomfort, annoyance, and harm. In particular, infrasound and low-frequency noise (ILFN) harm because of impacts unique to this concoction of noise.

More than just audible sound, grinding, whomping, blade pass whooshes, an ever-present hum, industrial wind turbines have a silent, below audible impact. It is not like a day contamination/harm at work where people can go home at night for relief. With industrial wind projects literally engulfing homes and rural areas, there is little or no escape.…