|
North Texas Wind Resistance Alliance Promoting the Truth about Wind Energy
|
|
|
News
Meetings and events:
|
|
|
Current Meetings and Events Friday, March 9, 2007 at 9 a.m.There will be a tax abatement hearing in the Jack County courthouse building, Jacksboro, TX, concerning Gamesa Energy's request for a tax abatement. Come and voice your concerns about giving away your tax dollars. Past Meeting: At the meeting on Saturday, January 20, 2007, attorney Steve Thompson discussed the results of the Abilene lawsuit, where the jury at one point was hung, six to six, before ultimately deciding for FPL Energy and against the plaintiffs (see Abilene news story below). He also announced that the court had set a trial date of October 2007 for the Cooke County suit seeking an injunction against FPL's proposed Wolf Ridge project. FPL indicated to the court that they did not intend to break ground until 2008. Costs of a suit appear to be in the $250,000 range. In addition to seeking financial support for the Cooke County suit, the NTWRA has received a request from Ridge Protectors in Caledonia County, VT, asking assistance in meeting the costs of their legal action there. They have spent some $120,000 in legal fees to date, and anticipate an additional $125,000+. See www.ridgeprotectors.org.
|
|
|
Recent News Stories
|
|
| The National Post (Canada):
Windmills aren't the answer The Alberta Electric System Operator and the Ontario grid operator have both announced that they can not accept additional wind turbines, due to imbalances created in their systems. The uncontrollable power production from wind is utterly out of synch with power consumption, requiring purchases of expensive power from other sources during periods of high demand, and costly dumping of unneeded wind generated electricity during periods of low demand. See the Nov. 21, 2006 National Post article. New York Times: It's Free, Plentiful and Fickle The New York Times reports that wind energy "is turning out to have complications". See their Dec. 28, 2006 article. After two years of an up-hill legal battle seeking damages under business-friendly Texas law, Abilene area residents lost again on Dec. 19, 2006, when a state district court ruled against them and in favor of FPL Energy. The final loss came after a series of setbacks during the trial, as the judge earlier ruled that damage caused by visual impact would not be considered. See the wind industry's celebration of the verdict and plaintiffs' reflection on possible appeal. Opponents are not backing-off, as lawsuits are still pending in Cooke and Jack Counties, and under consideration in Montague County, where juries may be more sympathetic to residents. Video Clip of Wind Turbine Impact: Protecting Texas A video documentary featuring the impact of wind turbines on Texas residents, and outlining many of the issues driving the opposition, is in preparation. An early-release 3-minute portion of that video (9.2 MB) is available here in Windows Media Player format. The clip features many of the plaintiffs in the recently concluded Abilene trial. Windmill Turbines: Not at Home on the Range The struggle to expose Wind Energy as the corporate "tax boondoggle" that it is, made the pages of Time Magazine on Dec. 6, 2006. Despite the support of the State's leading politicians, the same folks that helped deregulate our electric bills, wind energy faces increasing opposition from ordinary citizens. Time notes the lawsuits in Texas seeking damages for the destruction of property values, and opposition from the influential King Ranch. Star-Telegram: Wind Power Push Raising Ire The Fort Worth Star-Telegram published its analysis of the Texas Wind Fight on November 26, 2006. The article by Bill Hanna covered many of the issues surrounding wind energy in Texas, including the Abilene lawsuit, the Cooke County lawsuit, the King Ranch opposition, and ERCOT's Renewable Energy Zones. Goldman Sachs puts Horizon Wind Energy Up for Sale Speculation is that uncertainty surrounding the wind industry has led Goldman Sachs to offer its Horizon Wind Energy business for sale. Goldman Sachs has been a leader in the development of the Wind Industry as a guaranteed high-return investment program. The possible expiration of the federal production tax credit next year, is leading some analysts to suggest a top in the wind business. The article in The Times is available through Industrial Wind Action Group. See also Reuters. Massive European Power Blackout Leaves 10 Million People in the Dark, Nov. 4, 2006. On a cold Saturday night, everything that could go wrong with wind power, went wrong. It started in Germany, Europe's leader in wind energy production with over 18,000 Mw. of turbines, where freezing weather caused a surge in demand that wind could not supply. The German shortfall sucked power from the reliable French network of 58 nuclear plants, throwing 5 million French into darkness. Outages spread across the continent to Italy, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium and Austria, and even as far as Morocco. In Spain, the drop in voltage caused 2,800 Mw of wind energy and one gas-fired plant to shut down, and interrupted the flow of electricity to Morocco. The outages lasted for several hours, and a total shut-down of the European grid was only narrowly avoided. See Yahoo! News , The News , and the UPI article. Millions of Americans Suffer From Electricity Outages across the US Billions have been invested in useless wind turbines, while our national electricity infrastructure has been allowed to deteriorate. The Summer of 2006 has seen resultant power outages in major cities across the US. In July, in sweltering Queens, NY more than 100,000 people were without power for more than a week due to "mysterious" problems that appear linked to the deteriorating infrastructure of lines and transformers. Terminals at LaGuardia Airport lost power and the city's jail complex on Rikers Island was forced to operate on backup generators (See USA Today, Netscape-AP, and NAM). Also in July, in a California heat-wave, 37,000 homes in the LA area, and 900,000 in the Bay Area lost power (NY Times). In Saint Louis, 1.1 million suffered without power in the summer heat. The outage here, requiring days to restore, was blamed on a thunderstorm (USA Today and CBS News). On June 15, a crippling outage struck downtown Philadelphia at the start of rush-hour, stranding people in high-rise elevators and snarling traffic (NBC10 and Philly Future). Other outages have plagued Amtrac's NE rail corridor (metadish) and CSX Intermodal's operations (CSXI). With the restructuring of our electrical energy system to maximize the profits of generators and the investment community, with little regard for system reliability, we appear to be moving to third-world power conditions in the US.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
