Opposing the Wind

While some people are embracing the power of the wind, others stand opposed to it. Take, for example the folks living on the Tug Hill Plateau in upstate New York, where a major wind power complex is being built.

You've got some families torn apart because some see the economic development and benefits, while others think it's little more than industrial development.

But Byer, who is John Yancey's uncle, understands the lingering resentments the windmills fuel. The wind company signed lease agreements with just 74 landowners over a 12-mile stretch and ''good neighbor'' agreements with several dozen more, offering $500 to $1,000 for the inconvenience of living close to the turbines. In a small community, that kind of money can cause tensions between those who profit and those who don't.

Byer also understands the strain windmills can place on a family. His 47-year-old son, Rick, lives higher up on the plateau in a small white ranch house with a two-seat glider parked in a shed. The glider is Rick Byer's passion. He flies on weekends when he's not working at the pallet-making company.

In order to launch, the glider has to be towed by truck down a long rolling meadow across the road. When the wind company began negotiating with his father to put turbines on his ''runway,'' Rick Byer delivered a furious ultimatum.

''I told him if he allowed turbines in that field he would lose a son.''

The son's rage won out over the father's desire for easy cash, but Rick Byer still seethes at the forest of turbines that sprouted across from his home. Now he speaks out in other area towns where windmills are proposed.

''I tell people it's not a wind farm, it's an industrial development,'' he says as he mends wooden pallets in a barn one warm summer night. Rock music crackles from a radio propped crookedly on a pile of wood. Every now and then, Byer adjusts the set for a better reception. The windmills interfere with the signal, he says. They interfere with television too.

And they transform the night. As dusk falls, red strobe lights appear on every third windmill, glowing eerily atop the blades spinning ghostlike in the moonlight.

The companies have even given people $1,500 a month to compensate them for the loss of views.

So, who opposes wind power in places where the wind is most consistent and would be most likely to be economically viable? Well, some people who simply don't want the development in their own backyard. That's on top of the usual zero-growth eco-leftists.

Some towns have banned their construction altogether. Others have issued a moratorium on construction. Upstate New York is hardly experiencing economic growth, so these zero-growth policies have real world consequences in the form of jobs that will not happen, disposable income that will not get spent, and continued hardship for all.

People wonder what will happen when the leases expire in 15 years. That's a good question, but the need for power will not be any less critical.

So, with that in mind, anyone care to explain why New Jersey's Governor Corzine hasn't fast tracked the offshore wind project given that it's proven technology overseas and would not be visible from the shore? It's all so much hot air, and yet nothing gets done.

Where's the urgency to build these projects if the problems are as dire as Corzine and the other global warming proponents say? Step back a moment and ponder this.

Corzine has demanded that the state reduce its energy consumption and increase reliance on alternative energy sources while reducing fossil fuel demand. How exactly is the state going to increase the alternative energy usage if the governor isn't willing to move the offshore wind project forward? For such a supposed crisis, Corzine is taking a lackadaisical position.

UPDATE:
Staten Island politicians are suggesting locating wind power turbines on the Fresh Kills landfill site. Part of the site is supposed to be turned into a park, but I think this may have merit since the area gets a consistent breeze and would locate power generation close to the users. Indeed, the Staten Island Borough President commissioned a study that found that Fresh Kills is the only site within the city capable of producing sustained wind power. The site could be home to 7 units, which would generate 17.5 mw of power per year or enough to power 5,000 homes. It's a start.

UPDATE:
So, the projects that are more likely to go forward without opposition are ones that do not involve people being in close proximity to the wind farms (the more remote, the better the chances of approval). Yet, New Jersey continues to drag its feet on the offshore wind farm proposal. A similar proposal is going forward in neighboring Delaware. An earlier proposed wind farm in Texas fell through because of costs.