The construction of giant wind farms in Northern NY has been an issue of interest to me. It seems that harvest of energy from wind is a win-win situation for everyone from capitalist to environmentalist. Unfortunately, that does not appear to be the case. It has been an extremely volatile issue among some in the Malone, NY area. Here the concern is mainly one of effects of giant wind turbines on health. Sound and 'flicker' being the main issues.
This morning there is a NYT editorial on the issue written by Robert Kennedy Jr., who happens to be an environmental lawyer. He is opposed to the construction of a wind farm in Nantucket Sound and offers many reasons why. I agree that the waters under the wind farm should not be privatized and there should not be huge government subsidies to make the farm economically feasible. But I'm getting pretty sick of people worrying about the effects of the wind turbines on 'views'. Ok, I don't want them located in national parks or on the tops of mountains in the Adirondack Park. But give me a break, environmentalist have to give a little. I'm also very very skeptical concerning the issue of wind turbine effects on health. There is very little experimental evidence for this.
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Jerome a Paris over at Booman Tribune has done several excellent articles on wind farms. Apparently he works on the financing end of such things in europe. His fact based information debunks a lot of the concerns and accurately rates things such as noise, throwoff, flicker, bird death, etc. The point he makes is that a well planned and placed wind farm is hugely beneficial. I think it was Jerome that lambasted Robert Kennedy for NIMBYism in his op-ed on wind farms.
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