Pendleton County Mobilizes - December 7th meeting

A visit to neighboring Grant County will show how serious a threat wind projects are becoming for Pendleton. Last weekend I stood on the observation tower at Spruce Knob and saw 22 wind turbines on the Mt. Storm project, turbines are also visible from the Germany Valley overlook. If you are concerned about this or have other concerns, plan to attend the meeting Friday December 7 at 7 pm at the Library.

WHEN: Friday December 7 at 7 pm
WHERE: Pendelton County Public Library Lower Level
 
Do your realize that had the PSC Commissioners not used wisdom in their June 22, 2007 decision to refuse to permit Liberty Gap's application the project would most likely be near completion. Up to 50 huge turbines more than 400 feet tall would now sit atop Jack Mountain from the WV-VA state line northward to Moatstown.  The construction would have taken place during the driest summer local residents can recall.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: what would be the affect of the removal of up to 20,000 gallons of water a day from our streams for about 4 to 6 months as indicated in Liberty Gap's application. How would our county and downstream farms, residences, fisherman, wild life and others tolerate the removal of such a quantity of precious stream water?

While wind project claim to be "green" they continue to dismiss their own environmental impacts as 
justifiable to save the planet from global warming.  
You simply cannot have it both ways.  If you care about the planet that much then you will also be sensitive enough to ensure that your industrial projects minimize their own footprints.  The lesson of the past hundred years of abusive mining projects show that fragile mountain wilderness areas while they may be windy compared to others locations, are by definition the worst places to locate industrial projects of any kind.

Delmarva Power rejects Wind Power as too expensive

Not just West Virginia but now Delaware has woken up to the true costs of wind projects and the unsurmountable problem of 30% availability and need for 70% of the time buying electricity on the spot market to offset.

Notice the only country with major offshore windpower - Denmark - has two giant neighbors in Norway and Sweden who sell them hydro-generated electricity. In other words for Denmark - who would otherwise be buying all their electricity from partner countries - offshore wind is offsetting their trade balance costs - because their own traditional in-country generation capacity is minimal.

Everywhere else in the world - there is no offset - so the result is in effect paying for electricity TWICE! Traditional generation and then wind as well.

Fortunately everyone is waking up to this craziness and the impact on their electricity bills.

Delmarva Power is calling for studies on alternatives.  Just like for West Virginia biomass is one mentioned option to achieve sustainable 20% generation capacity.  Unlike West Virginia, Delmarva power is actively calling for review of these other sources.  

See news article here.

West Virginia is no longer wind industry dumping ground

West Virginia has woken up to the real facts behind the wind industry and its rosy claims.

Congressman Mollohan has sent a hard hitting letter commenting on the State Energy plan on industrial wind to DOE Herholdt.

In the letter Mollohan gives facts and figures that show that wind turbines simply do not contribute significantly to any real sustained energy production nor reduce carbon emissions enough for the investment and their own impact on West Virginia environment.  

Furthermore they are incompatible with the State's heritage and 
open spaces image, towering hundreds of feet over the landscape and cutting gapping habitat fragmenting lines with access roads.

Clearly West Virginia now has to look seriously at alternates that really do leverage resources that provide sustained alternative energy with real job creation and low carbon emissions. That alternative is everywhere in the State - wood.

The US is lagging woefully behind Europe in developing high efficiency sustainable wood energy systems. See this UK success award for just one example. There is simply nothing in the West Virginia energy plan that even seriously considers these opportunities.

Now is the time for investment in developing a real plan for West Virginia with funding to the University of West Virginia to do the research and studies on sustainable wood energy systems.

The full text of Mollohans letter is here.