Write-in candidate for governor Annette Smith amped up her rhetoric on wind energy today during an appearance on WDEV-FM’s “The Mark Johnson Show,” comparing wind turbines to “a terrorist” landing in your community.
“Don’t shoot the messenger. I’m sorry, I thought wind was going to be part of the solution,” Smith told the radio host. “When you work on the wind issue, and you go into these communities — it’s like a terrorist has landed in your community.”
Here’s audio of the quote:
Smith: “Don’t shoot the messenger.“
Smith, who is waging a write-in campaign as an independent after narrowly losing a write-in campaign for the Progressive nomination, appeared on Johnson’s show to talk about her campaign and her choice to remain at the head of the nonprofit advocacy group Vermonters for a Clean Environment, among other topics.
Smith’s no stranger to strong words about wind development. In March, she told me developers are “making climate-change victims out of the people who live around the projects” — to which climate change activist Bill McKibben, a supporter of wind development, retorted that there are plenty of people and places around the world that better qualify as victims.
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Within a polite discussion on this issue with a friend, recently… as with most who have conducted zero to minimal research, he was only aware of Wind and Solar as our two alternatives to the energy question. I had mentioned that I could likely compose a list of 50 options that addressed these concerns more effectively. And, not one of those required bulldozing the oldest mountains on Earth. Pay a visit to West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky if you’d like to see what’s awaiting northern New England, due to decisions based on misinformation, and lack of information. 200 miles of Vermont’s mountains are in the bulls-eye… in a state that is only 160 miles long.
To make sure I had not overstated my declaration, I set to work seeing if I could indeed compose a list of 50+. I put down my pencil around #53. Whatever your global environmental concerns might be, Wind does nothing to solve any of that. However, there is a very long list of negatives that do come with wind turbines on our pristine mountains! Wildlife habitat, water runoff, destroying our Tourism Industry, elevating the costs of energy and risking IBM and other businesses running off to other states, destroying property values, killing the rural beauty and regional culture of our state, and turning us into a ghost town, etc, etc.
If you own a home within sight and/or earshot of a wind farm, count on your property being worth a fraction of what it was before. And expect, even with a hugely discounted asking price, you will have very few buyers interested in purchasing ‘damaged goods’.
There are too many better options to destroying our state with industrial-scale wind farms, to not be investigating other alternatives.
Here’s a recent SCIENTIFIC study about wind turbines and noise, with a few high level bullet points below:
http://www.jsonline.com/news/o…
• There is no evidence that the audible or sub-audible sounds emitted by wind turbines have any direct adverse physiological effects.
• Sub audible, low frequency sound and infrasound from wind turbines do not present a risk to human health.
• Sound from wind turbines does not pose a risk of hearing loss or any other adverse health effect in humans.
• Some people may be annoyed at the presence of sound from wind turbines. Annoyance is not pathological.
• A major cause of concern about wind turbine sound is its fluctuating nature. Some may find this sound annoying, a reaction that depends primarily on personal characteristics as opposed to the intensity of the sound level.
• The ground-borne vibrations from wind turbines are too weak to be detected by, or to affect, humans.
• The sounds emitted by wind turbines are not unique. There is no reason to believe, based on the levels and frequencies of the sounds and the panel’s experience with sound exposures in occupational settings, that the sounds from wind turbines could plausibly have direct adverse health consequences.
For more information on other scientific, peer-reviewed reports, visit: http://www.windworksvermont.org
This from Billy Bob: “Each Turbine takes 4000 lbs of rare earth minerals the rape of the land to extract rare earth minerals caused the EPA to shut down the practices in the USA.”
Oh, the hypocrisy! Not in our back yard says the EPA of rare earth minerals mining; no, not in our back yard; BUT, we will turn our backs while other places in the world rape to accommodate our energy needs. Oh, the hypocrisy! And, then we will turn our back once again on the people of the U.S. while developers and manufacturers rape our natural resources and our quality of life to implement the Industrial Wind Turbine Agenda in the U.S.
Oh, the hypocrisy!
Completely agree, Sutton_Hoo!!! Thank you for calling Annette out for what she is. She has been one of the driving forces in frightening Vermonters from one of the cleanest, most cost-effective forms of new clean renewable energy available. For all you who believe in Annette’s information, do tell me how Europeans aren’t dying left and right from noise syndrome, and how Colorado has powered a bunch of their power from wind, and for the NIMBY,s – so you are selfish enough (and don’t call yourself a Vermonter!!!!) to flood Canada, to frack Pennsylvania and to get your nuclear power from New Hampshire??? SHAME ON YOU ALL!!!!!!!!! Learn your facts about energy before you repeat a bunch of hogwash. Look at Department of Energy facts on wind, look at National Renewable Energy Laboratory facts on wind (NREL). And regarding Sutton’s age, what does that matter? I’ve been to plenty of the anti- meetings (and let’s just state that there are under 400 of you, cuz that’s all Annette could get to vote for) many of you are retired and really won’t be around when your decisions at Town Halls gravely impact the future of our youth. Climate change? Having fuel prices that go up and down and up and down? No jobs? We have a chance at a green revolution – but the nimby’s and anti-winders instead offer only NO, let’s force Vermonts energy needs on to others backs.
Wind power conjures up bucolic images of little dutch girls in wooden clogs and pigtails. The image has nothing to do with the reality off commercial Wind Energy and the blight it leaves on the environment. In Spain they have made a huge investment in wind energy the result is a power grid that goes down in large windstorms, the electricity is the most expensive in the world.
The science of capturing the wind is fraught with problems, each turbine must be connected to the grid which means clearing mountainsides of trees and foliage under the transmission lines killing our natural habitat. It is said that you need 100,000 acres to equal the energy output of one acre of nuclear energy.
Each Turbine takes 4000 lbs of rare earth minerals the rape of the land to extract rare earth minerals caused the EPA to shut down the practices in the USA.
Wind energy must be used directly in the grid it cannot be stored , tat the beauty of a power source that releases energy like oil,gas, coal, wood or nuclear fuel. Wind is not the passive energy producer the people who have given huge industrial energy plants names like wind farms. They are only farms in the sense that Monsanto or Cargil and their chemical waste stream and patented seed mills are farms. Kinda evil and wretched for the little benefit they produce.
Bill Mc Kibben should contact Dr Drooz from across the lake in NY about the efficacy of wind energy it is a crap argument that trying to capture wind while stringing miles of transmission lines killing off forests to maintain those transmission lines is our savior. Bill McKibbon is just a man not some deity as his name is invoked in these pages, last time I checked he still farts belches and takes a dump like everyone else.
In response to: Wind Development like ” Terrorist” has landed in your community. Annette Smith, you may just have a point!
I do not know how many ways one can say that the Massachusetts DEP/DPH study was/is flawed. A so-called panel of experts to pass judgement not on facts and current issues affecting real people in local communities, but on other’s opinions; this at a time when every day we are learning the damage inherent in industrial wind turbines. That is not scientific research, it is a literature review and for all who are equally intent on pushing forward The Industrial Wind Turbine Agenda, and, there is one prevalent across the country and around the world, it is acceptable. Perish the thought that we would confuse the issue with facts and in depth scientific research.
We do not have a National Energy Plan that can and will embrace all technologies equally. None of our energy resources is a one size fits all product, even though at this point, it would appear that Industrial Wind Turbines are the poster child for curing the ills of the world.
A moratorium on the Industrial Wind Turbine Agenda is a must. As far as energy is concerned, the country can only be considered as a whole unit, in its entirety coast to coast, north to south. The locations and uses appropriate for each energy source will emerge; some states may be more appropriate receptors for hydro, others for solar photovoltaic, others the old stand-by oil, gas, coal, and others, still, nuclear and wind.
We have, in this country, a great amount of energy technology wealth, including industrial wind turbines; it runs the gamut from solar to nuclear; we have in abundance great research centers and in even greater abundance human intelligence. This is a winning combination and leaves one to wonder why we are not leaders in energy technology and energy resource use. Use of coal, gas, oil with clean rivers and waterways and clean air can all be accomplished by spending the money we are throwing at Industrial Wind Turbine farms and their generation on all other technologies equally.
Each state’s statesmen/women seem to feel this is a game a race to see who can build the most industrial wind farms in the most inappropriate locations. For how many years have we fought to keep our mountains high, our open spaces sacred; and, now, it is all right to destroy all of this in deference to a 50 story, 62-ton, machine that is anything but green. Like most who are asking for an Industrial Wind Turbine moratorium, I embraced them; they were good for this country and good for our future; as presently implemented, that is a lie; read both sides of the issue and defer to the side of caution.
I must take this one step further because we can add another question to the laundry list of unanswered questions as it relates to the Industrial Wind Turbine Agenda.
National security. Is it possible that an industrial wind turbine could be a 360 degree 50-story skype; how far reaching would that eye-on-the-world be? And, who would benefit? Only two possibilities: our government or another. And, it was our government that brought up the national security issue, the self same government that is behind and pushing The Industrial Wind Turbine Agenda. The Oregon wind farm in question is 10 miles from the military base in question.
Here, in Massachusetts, our Cape Cod Military Base has wind turbines on their property with more coming in the near future. A 50-story skype? Not out of the realm of possibility. A “terrorist”, yes, in the most figurative of ways, and, who knows, literally, too.A Wind Farm in Oregon Threatens National Security and …
climatelawyers.com/post/2012/0……
Sep 30, 2012 … A Wind Farm in Oregon Threatens National Security and President Obama Acts … Sany Heavy Industries), a Chinese company affiliated with Ralls (together, the … might be necessary: “a wind farm within observation distance of a sensitive, … To return to Naval Weapons Systems Training Facility Boardman, …
Marie-Jane
No, sir, we are NOT all NIMBYs. I’m sure it comforts you to believe that, but it isn’t true. Not everyone is concnerned only with himself or herself. Some people believe that we should do what our democratically elected representatives (the legislature) and our civil institutions (the PSB) have decided is in the best interest of the state: renewable energy projects. Some people believe in private property and that the owners of private property have the right to decide how to use it consistent with government regulation. Some people believe in community. I live near utility and power projects that some of my neighbors oppose but I don’t, even though I can see them just as much as my neighbors. Because I don’t believe in NIMBYism.
And just who are you?
Who is Hoo?
I just had to ask. I knew if I didn’t do it, somebody else just couldn’t resist. But now that I think about it, what credentials does Hoo have? I’m sure “Horton†would like to hear from Hoo, too.
Hoo denigrates Annette Smith but doesn’t seem, at least from the comments, to have much expertise other than an opinion. A “housepersonâ€! And what?… Hoo is not a houseperson? Well, who isn’t?
Does Hoo live under a turbine? Has Hoo lost his life savings because an
industrial wind turbine project was built next door? Does Hoo really believe the line that wind energy is green, free, and will save the world from global warming? Really? What are Hoo’s credentials to back up his view on wind energy and how it affects the world and nearby residents? Is there, perhaps, a “technology or energy policy background†lurking behind the scenes, here?
So who is Hoo? Also… What is what? And why should we listen?
This is not just a light-hearted criticism of Hoo’s comments (from someone who does live under a turbine, but without much other expertise). We all really would like to know. Really.
Who is Hoo? And Hoo is… … who?
Let us be clear. Wind energy needs supporting coal and gas fired back up plants to work with our grid, thus limiting carbon emission savings. We are asking people to sacrifice their health, and their quality of life for an idea – not for a real solution. The MA DEP report was created by a pro-wind panel (Manville and Mills) on a limited literature review in order to support the wind energy goals and political ambitions of Deval Patrick.
To properly inform yourself about the true effects of wind turbines on people and communities, read instead the entire August, 2011 issue of the Bulletin of Science, Technology and Society, especially the work of Phillips, Krogh, McMurtry, Thorne and Salt. Read also Dr. Salt’s latest work as presented at Internoise 2012.
Here in Fairhaven my friends and neighbors are suffering from headaches, migraines, sleeplessness, and vertigo that began when the turbines went up. A new elementary school is being built within 3000 feet of two 1.5 mw turbines. Some of our children will be exposed to turbine sound 24 hours a day. Homes are going on the market with no takers. Placing turbines along the coastal flyways anywhere threatens migratory birds and bats. Here in Fairhaven the toll on these creatures is mounting. It is hard to look at a photo of a bat with its lungs clearly exploded and not be concerned about what this is doing to humans as well.