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June 13, 2006

Politics And NIMBY Stop Wind Farm Development

Environment  Politics

It takes some energy to build, transport, install, and maintain wind turbines, yes, but after that wind power is basically energy for free. No carbon emissions, no pollution. Who could oppose it? Chicago Tribune:

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 in Massachusetts 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 new wind farms hundreds of miles away in Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.

Federal officials declined to reveal how many stop-work orders have been sent out. But developers said that at least 15 wind farm proposals in the Midwest have been shut down by the Federal Aviation Administration since the start 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. [...]

[D]espite the government's recent concern about proposed wind projects, it is allowing dozens of current wind farms to continue to operate within sight of radar systems. [...]

Critics of Cape Wind include members of the Kennedy family, whose summer compound is on Cape Cod. Both U.S. Sen. Edward 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.

The younger Kennedy, an environmental lawyer and activist who has supported wind power in other parts of the country, said putting a wind farm in Nantucket Sound would be akin to placing one in the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone National Park. [...]

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 Defense Department 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 used by the military. [Emphasis added]

It's stuff like this that makes me despair for our prospects. As noted the other day, the time for "grudging incrementalism" is over, but people just don't get it yet. By the time global climate change has gotten so bad that nobody can doubt it's seriousness and urgency, it will be too late. By then, feedback loops will have been set in motion that will push the global climate much, much farther into disastrous new territory, no matter what we do. The time to act is right now, and we need to act with urgency and determination.

Wind farms are an obvious good. I don't really understand this idea that they spoil the view. When I see a wind farm, it makes me feel good. It connotes a peaceful future, a harmonious relationship with the Earth. The turbines are quiet and graceful, beautiful in more ways than one. You might even say they're a gesture of love for our Mother Earth.

The time for NIMBY is over. Every site is in somebody's backyard, but global warming puts many millions of lives at risk. NIMBY is for a different world than the one we're living in. NIMBY is obsolete.

Feel free to build a wind farm in my backyard.

Posted by Jonathan at June 13, 2006 10:12 PM  

Comments

Obviously, these people who oppose wind farms haven't seen one in action. When I was travelling in India last year, we passed by a wind farm and these large 'windmills' were beautiful, quiet and enhanced an otherwise plain environment.
We humans have a habit of waiting till it's too late to take action, and NIMBY smacks of hypocrisy.

Posted by: thanneer at June 14, 2006 12:54 AM

To correct your commentary, the time to act was long ago. The feedback loops are already in motion and as has been written many times elsewhere, some deleterious climate change is long unavoidable. The oceans have already absorbed excess energy that will take some time to reach the previous equilibrium, IF that is even possible. There is no reason why the planet wouldn't find a new equilibrium.

Posted by: Derek at June 14, 2006 12:06 PM

Derek, it's been written many times here as well, but I take your point.

Posted by: Jonathan at June 14, 2006 04:25 PM

Happiness.

What do we need to be happy?

I'm going to agree with the Kennedy's and others on this one; a wind farm off the Cape would be sightly. Windmills are not beautiful anyplace they spring up. Either are solar panels or nuclear power plants. I don't want to see any of these things, but I'm going to. These technologies are the future.

What makes me different from the Kennedy's and others like them is that these sights will not be a source of unhappiness for me. Maybe I'll feel a sense of loss with nature obstructed, and a desire for them not to exist, but they will not affect my overall state of happiness. I will accept them for what they are, what they represent and what they provide.

What we have here are the desires of a few (in this case, very few) affecting the future of millions, hundreds-of-millions of Americans. We’re all paying the price so a few elite can childishly demand (and get) what they want. Jonathan has it right when he calls some of our leaders adolescents. This is, once again, man not quite fully evolved, with adulthood a prerequisite to the evolutionary process.

Posted by: Jeff at June 14, 2006 07:36 PM

To answer my own question, what do we need to be happy, apparently for these people it's an unobstructed view of....

WATER!

Posted by: Jeff at June 14, 2006 07:51 PM

Excellent post, Jonathan, I agree. FYI, at our recent WINDPOWER 2006 conference in Pittsburgh, the Department of Energy and the American Wind Energy Association agreed to jointly develop an action plan to boost wind energy to 20% of U.S. electricity production. More info in the Newsroom at www.awea.org.

Tom Gray
American Wind Energy Association

Posted by: Tom Gray at June 15, 2006 08:42 AM

Please explain how destroying 192,000 acres of environmentally pure rural land (including protected wetlands), to supply intermittent electricity of 1 (yes, 1) 1,000 acre modern power plant is good for the environment? Germany: 9,000 turbines and less than 10% of need met. Oh BTW not a single coal, nuclear or gas power plant will be decommissioned due to wind power. For AWEA's 20% of US Electricity, it is going to destroy land the size of the state of Virginia, and change the character of the surrounding areas to industrial for good. That's a good deal for the environment?

Explain yourself in more than broad paint brush strokes of idealism.

Posted by: Jim at June 19, 2006 10:10 AM