Neighbors of Fox Islands Wind turbines from Google Earth
Rick James, one of the nation’s foremost acoustical engineers and advisor to Fox Islands Wind Neighbors, recommends wind turbines should be barred within 1.25 miles from homes. If adequate setbacks had been in place, the controversy over the wind turbine noise issue would not have occurred on Vinalhaven. We are not alone. Wind turbine noise controversies are a major problem for the industry. Fault lies with the industry itself that adamantly resists uniform, protective setbacks and, locally, decision makers who failed to adequately inform neighbors of likely noise impacts despite the warning of project consultants. Here is a list of neighbors of the turbines and approximate distances from the nearest turbine, based on Google Earth imagery and tools. Read the rest of this entry »
The award-winning documentary “Windfall” shows the impact of industrial wind turbines on neighbors in American communities. The film will be shown in Rockland at the Strand. The show is scheduled so that Vinalhaven and North Haven ratepayers and citizens will be able to attend: on Saturday, March 3rd at 2PM with discussion. Free admission for the first 40 people with Vinalhaven ID. There will also be another show on Sunday, March 4th at 3PM.
LENOX — A study group’s report says the town should abandon a wind energy proposal.
After four months of study, the majority of the Wind Energy Research Panel is recommending the proposal be scuttled because it won’t be a financial benefit to Lenox, but would raise health concerns and yield a negative environmental impact. The panel was assigned by the Select Board to evaluate a single or double municipal wind-turbine installation atop Lenox Mountain.
“When I read the report, I saw many of the same patterns that we saw early on with those issues where the information is cherry-picked, despite tremendous amounts of information,” she said. “The people who are suffering are dismissed as having annoyance … The patterns are the same and the outcomes are the same.” … Eleanor Tillinghast
Boston Herald, Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Massachusetts residents insistent that the drone, flicker and vibration of land-based wind turbines can shatter the health of nearby communities invoked Tuesday the onset of the United States’ HIV/AIDS epidemic to reject a recent report debunking their claims. Read the rest of this entry »
Blown Away: Big Wind’s Inconvenient Truth, by Alan Farago
(Counterpunch, Feb 10, 2012) The installation of wind turbines too close to houses and personal property is a major headache for the wind power industry, but headache scarcely begins to describe their impact to nearby property owners and neighbors. My property and home are scarcely three quarters of a mile from a three 1.5 megawatt turbine wind farm that went online in November 2009 with blades stretching nearly 400 feet into the air.
Tilting at windmills, OPED NY POST
By ROBERT BRYCE
Posted: 10:14 PM, February 4, 2012
Documentary makers are always hoping that their film will come out at just the right moment, when a favorable news cycle and popular sentiment are converging so that the public is primed for their message. Read the rest of this entry »
“The growing resistance to large-scale wind projects raises a number of questions that must be addressed before Congress approves any further subsidies. The most important one is also the most obvious: If the noise generated by wind turbines isn’t a health problem, why are so many people, in so many different countries, complaining about the noise in nearly identical terms? And why are some of them going so far as to abandon their homes?”
In his State of the Union address last week, President Barack Obama touted renewable energy and declared that he would “not walk away from workers” such as Bryan Ritterby, who is employed by a wind-turbine manufacturer in Michigan.
But in their rush to embrace the wind-energy business, Obama and numerous other politicians are walking away from rural residents such as David Enz and his wife, Rose. A year ago, the couple abandoned their home near Denmark, Wis., because of the unbearable low-frequency noise produced by a half-dozen 495-foot-high wind turbines that were built near the home they’ve owned since 1978. The closest was installed about 3,200 feet from their house. Read the rest of this entry »
Woods Hole, MA - Senate President Therese Murray said “Falmouth’s industrial wind turbines are too close [to residents]“. Senator Murray also explained her turn-around on WESRA [Wind Energy Siting Reform Act] which died on Beacon Hill. The program will be rebroadcast at [correction] 7:30 PM this evening on WCAI, NPR’s (National Public Radio’s) station in Woods Hole, at FM 90.1, 91.1, and 94.3 or can be streamed at: http://www.wgbh.org/includes/playerPopStream.cfm?station=objWCAI&ts
The program will also be available later in the week at: http://www.wgbh.org/wcai/programDetail.cfm?programid=298
WCAI can be found at: http://www.wgbh.org/wcai 508.548.9600
Save Our Seashore
Welfleet, MA
I have worked for many people who have severe response to wind turbine sounds. Most are within 1 mile of the nearest turbines, but some are at much greater distances. In 2008 George Kamperman and I applied standard acoustical principles to wind turbine noise to set criteria for siting wind turbines while protecting public health. We did not want to use setback distances because the required setbacks are a function of how many turbines are contributing to the sound immissions at a residence as well as the type and size of the turbines. Read the rest of this entry »
Fox Islands Wind has been the focus of a “charm offensive” with various proponents claiming what a great success the project has been, ignoring the significant ongoing controversy over wind turbine noise that has marred the project’s reputation both within the wind industry and in the press. The charm offensive relates mainly to tax subsidies set to expire in 2013, as detailed by Robert Bryce below.
The American Wind Energy Association has begun a major lobbying effort in Congress to extend some soon-to-expire renewable-energy tax credits. And to bolster that effort, the lobby group’s CEO, Denise Bode, is calling the wind industry “a tremendous American success story.” Read the rest of this entry »
An article in the Sun Journal of Dec. 30 raised eyebrows at Friends of Maine’s Mountains.
Included were the words: “Wind turbines came into Maine with a boom but two projects were able to go online without making a sound this month.” The article quoted Tom Carroll, an operative of the wind development company Patriot Renewables, and Gordon Gamble, a public relations man for Independence Wind, about Maine’s newest industrial wind turbine plants on Spruce Mountain in Woodstock and Record Hill in Roxbury. FMM is disappointed that the “other side” of this important story wasn’t told.
Readers of the story were essentially led to believe that these massive projects have come without incident. Unwitting readers might also infer that these new wind “farms” have disproved their critics, settled all debate and gained acceptance. The truth is that many people in the vicinity of the Roxbury and Woodstock wind projects are already experiencing problems with noise emissions.
“I am VERY concerned about the NOISE LEVELS generated by the windmill,” wrote Peaks Island resident Carol Fexa in a letter to Portland city staff . “SOUND CARRIES on an island. The tiniest of sounds are amplified because we are surrounded by a body of water.” Fellow Peaks Islanders Ann and Gus Karlsen agreed. “We would like to voice our opposition to ANY wind turbines on Peaks Island,” the couple wrote to city staff in part. “We were under the impression that the ‘wind tests’ there were not sufficient.”
Please consider helping with a financial contribution to the legal and expert costs associated with our efforts. Write your contribution to:
Fox Islands Wind Neighbors
PO Box 572
Vinalhaven ,ME 04863
