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.
posted by DRRW @ 5:00 AM
3 Comments:
Unfortunately, the way our leadership works and the way the system in general works, no matter what source of energy they choose, it will most likely lead to the rape of our state. They are busy thinking up more ways to "use" our resources faster than we can figure out ways to fight them. The words may be changed but we are STILL "open for business" to come here and take and destroy in the name of progress.
So, let me get this straight. You would rather have lumberjacks cut down all your trees to burn as fuel (wood burning is a significant atmospheric polluter), then to build a few hundred Wind Turbines that would power about 82,500 homes a year? You’re joking right? Or, are you just cranium deficient?
Actually sustainable wood energy is carbon neutral. You burn trees from wood you grow - not that you hack down and don't replace - key difference. The new trees you plant remove carbon from the atmosphere. Then you harvest the tree and plant new growth, and the cycle continues. Essentially the trees are capturing solar energy that you then extract by burning. Also the "burning" is not smoky charcoal fires - its in high efficiency furnaces that are 97% clean and extract maximum amount of energy available. Europe is way ahead of the US in developing these plants and systems.
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