Upstate New Yorkers are up in arms about widespread plans to install wind farms. In some cases, they’re fighting the green power plants with scare tactics more often associated with the anti-nuclear lobby.
The activities of Save Upstate and like-minded groups make front-page news in local papers at least once a week. They hold anti-turbine rallies and meetings where they discuss windmills’ potential dangers and drawbacks. They complain about the potential effect on their property values and the aesthetic impact on the area’s scenic countryside.
Other complaints are a little further from reality. In a recent symposium held by the Concerned Citizens for Steuben County, one speaker compared the sound of the spinning blades and whirring machinery (which most people find inaudible from fairly close distances) to the noises Nazi troops tortured Jews with during the holocaust.
Those anti-turbinites really know how to put a good spin on an issue.
The most contemptible opponents of projects like these are those who masquerade as environmentalists. With few exceptions, most of those who parade under false colors have never raised a finger to move our economy towards greater energy efficiency or independence.
Golisano spent $70 million to get 14% of the votes in the last NY governor’s election — running as an independent — because he couldn’t win the Democrat nomination. Now, he’s going to give the Republicans a try.
This kills me, I don’t know where these people think we are going to get our energy from. They don’t like fossil fuels, nuclear and now wind. The problem is that politicians are listening to these, excuse the pun, windbags. Here in NJ the Gov has put a moratorium on windmills having gotten complaints from rich beach front homeowners, fisherman and greenies, who are afraid a few birds may be killed.
perhaps NY should give the upstaters the choice of a nuke or a wind farm in its back yard.
There is a medium turbine a couple of miles from our house. You need to be withing a few feet in order to hear the thing and then it is a soft woosh / whir.
Are the good people in Upstate New York willing to go back to kerosene lamps and wood stoves? I like nature as much as the next guy, but if you want to be a NIMBY then prepare to pay the price.
Interesting.
This sounds like the tactics used during MLK’s demonstrations. Hire a few rabel to stand out during a Peaceful demonstration.
Lets see what looks and sounds worse..Forget Nuke.
How about a COAL plant, coal dust from the trucks and trains, and ALOT of heavy metal polutants? A DAM, BIG Ugly, and swamps about 60% of the land? An aluminum plant, that takes up the WHOLE country side, and polutes the rivers??
Funny to think that we could probably support the WHOLE east coast with the organics they throw int he garbage, as methane fire plant, or an mthane alcohol plant, would add cooking down grains and corn..
I understand that some folks are totally against these things, but there was a cult in Boone NC called the “whooshies” who held the experimental NASA windmill in great reverence.
The huge windmill made a very audible sound that could be heard throughout the town whenever it was allowed to function. As I recall the blades were very large(70 ft?) and the generator itself was as big as a railroad car.
The windmill was dismantled and the cult had ceased to exist in the late 70’s.
I’ve been to huge wind farms along the Washington/Oregon border and in Texas. Like Pat said, you really can’t hear them unless you’re almost on top of them and then its just a wooshing sound.
What really killed me about the article were some of the scare tactics used on the clueless people…getting strokes from the pulsing sunlight? How big do they think these blades are? Not large enough block out the light and make a noticable flicker. How about the women having 5 menstrual cycles per month? On a 5-7 day cycle, that’s 25 to 35 days per month…I don’t think so. Of course, I’m neither a doctor nor a woman but, come on!
Face it, these are the same people who like to dictate to the rest of the country how we should live cleanly and not impose on the environment with our hydroelectric dams, nuclear power plants or coal/gas fired generators but instead should use solar or wind-powered generators…as long as it doesn’t impose on them.
Hey John, I am a Whooshie, and I attended a reunion of Erosion Canyon soulmates this past weekend up at Taylor Lake on Three Top Mountain. Were you there? And do you know if the video still exists? Thanks, Julie, a loyal whooshie