Wind & Solar Energy

Just when you thought you’d seen the last of Hinckley & Quirke—they’re back!  No kidding!  Same two guys.  New gig.  Different wheels.  (We hope they bring back the Hummer.  Made them real easy to spot.  They were worth keeping track of.)

Charles “Chuck” Hinckley, lately of “Noble Environmental LLC”

They call themselves American Wind Capital.  Check it out.

Robert Bryce

Once you’ve carpeted the wilderness with wind-farm turbines, and crushed any guilt about the birds you’re about to kill, prepare to be underwhelmed and underpowered.

—Trevor Butterworth, Wall St. Journal 4/27/10 (with appreciation)

Al Gore has a dream, a dream increasingly shared, according to opinion surveys, by people all over the world. It is that the 19th century, the age of steam and iron and coal, will finally end and that, as Mr. Gore wrote in an article for the New York Times in 2008, the time will soon come for “21st-century technologies that use fuel that is free forever: the sun, the wind and the natural heat of the earth.”

Editor: The following letter was written 10/30/09 by Sheldon, NY, Town Councilman Glenn Cramer, responding to a letter (click here) by a Cape Vincent landowner trying to sell his town on industrial wind turbines.

—Op-Ed by Calvin Luther Martin

Timothy Chase lives in Chateaugay in a house with big fat liens on it.  And I warn you right now this is going to be a sad story and if you don’t like sad stories stop reading right now.

—Op-Ed by Calvin Luther Martin

Update (March 27, 2009)

The article below (scroll down the page) was published March 17th.  It features (former) Noble employee Cheryl LeClair, whose home in Altona has been ruined by turbine noise (including low frequency noise) and maddening shadow flicker.  In Cheryl’s words:

European Platform Against Windfarms (EPAW) also calls for study of wind power’s record to determine its true benefits, costs, and adverse impacts

The Sandry home, Thompson, Iowa, 2008

Rowe, Mass., Jan. 15, 2009 — On the morning of October 4, 2008, before the second national protest against industrial wind energy development in Paris, several groups from France and other European countries agreed to form the European Platform Against Windfarms (EPAW).

 —Eugene Goodrich (New Brunswick, Canada)

 
“Deer River Flow,” watercolor by Sandra Hildreth

RiverCityMalone was sent this essay by a reader.  It’s a concise correction to many of the exaggerations and half truths routinely expressed by the wind developers and slavishly repeated by the newspapers in Franklin & Clinton counties.  Anyone who has attended a town meeting over the past four years, where wind salesmen were pitching the benefits of their product, will resonate to Mr. Goodrich’s essay, which we reprint with appreciation. 

Painting by Grant Wood (1930), with adaptation

—Calvin Luther Martin

“I recently spoke with a homeowner who lives on the Number 5 Road in Chateaugay, NY.  Her farm is surrounded by the newest crop of turbines.”   So begins a letter by a lady named Flossy Powell.  Ms. Powell submitted her letter to RiverCityMalone around Christmas time.

Flossy’s letter is disturbing.  It describes the experience of an acquaintance in Chateaugay (NY) who now finds herself surrounded by (what appears to be) the Noble Chateaugay Windpark.

 —Op-Ed by Jack Sullivan, MS

Editor’s note:  This article is reprinted with minor revisions from The Empire Page, 12/13/08.  Our appreciation to Mr. Sullivan and TEP. 

Adapted from www.plataformahorta.org, with appreciation

Many NYS politicians, members of the media and environmentalists see wind power as an all-encompassing solution to global warming, energy independence, and much needed job creation.

But are these rosy expectations supported by scientific fact and wind project performance?  Or is this merely feel-good public policy and wishful thinking?

—Calvin Luther Martin

Visit the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) website, where you can see all the power production figures for NYS, quarter by quarter throughout the calendar year.  This includes output from coal-fired plants, nuclear, hydro, wind, and solar.  The works.  Any electricity sold to the NYS Independent System Operator (“the grid”) shows up on the FERC website. This is known as “transparency.”

—Op-Ed by Calvin Luther Martin

“Smells Fishy,” by Nate Owens

On October 24, 2008, Noble Environmental (there being many versions or layers of Noble, it turns out) applied to the NYS Public Service Commission for permission to do the following:

—William Tucker

The following text and images are all taken from a weblog by William Tucker, author of Terrestrial Energy: How Nuclear Energy Will Lead the Green Revolution and End America’s Energy Odyssey.  Tucker is a seasoned journalist.  He has done us all a great service by demythologizing nuclear power. 

Tucker thinks it’s time to retire the name “nuclear power,” loaded as it is with frightful connotations, and start using the more realistic and palatable name, “terrestrial energy.” 

The following is a crash course on the subject, courtesy of Bill Tucker.  The Editor.

—Op-Ed by Michael Fournier

Panic has set in among wind scammers and other environmental terrorists over reports that an intrepid knight has been seen battling wind turbines throughout the wind-farm wastelands of Ellenburg, Churubusco, and Chateaugay.

—Carol Thompson, Chateaugay

Albert Johnson (Photo courtesy of Carol Thompson)

Forget Barack Obama and John McCain.  Next door Albert Johnson and Jim Otis are battling for Burke Town Supervisor.  It’s a hot contest.  Signs, newspaper ads, flyers, door-to-door, speeches–and bitterness.

—Dr. FrankenTurbinStein

WARNING:  These photos are not for the faint-hearted.

Production figures, April 2008 through June 2008

Photo ©Charlie Porter, King City, MO

—Op-Ed by Jack Sullivan

The following was published in the Press Republican 9-7-08.  Jack Sulllivan subsequently submitted it to RCM for publication.  The Editor.

Mr. Colin Read claims in an August 12th Press Republican “Opinion” column that the 217 wind turbines scheduled for Franklin and Clinton counties would produce enough “permanent and sustainable electric power for 200,000 homes.” Impressive, except it doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.

—Matthew L. Wald, New York Times

“Barn & wind” (Rock Port, Missouri, photo ©Back Stage)

The following article appeared in the NY Times 8-26-08, written by Matthew L. Wald. RiverCityMalone thinks it’s worth reading.  The Editor.

When the builders of the Maple Ridge Wind farm spent $320 million to put nearly 200 wind turbines in upstate New York, the idea was to get paid for producing electricity. But at times, regional electric lines have been so congested that Maple Ridge has been forced to shut down even with a brisk wind blowing.

That is a symptom of a broad national problem. Expansive dreams about renewable energy, like Al Gore’s hope of replacing all fossil fuels in a decade, are bumping up against the reality of a power grid that cannot handle the new demands.

—Nicholas Confessore, New York Times

Kathy LaClair, Churubusco, NY (Photo ©Christinne Muschi for the NY Times)

The following article appeared in the NY Times 8-17-08, written by Nicholas Confessore. RiverCityMalone thinks it’s worth reading.  The Editor.

BURKE, N.Y.–Everywhere that Janet and Ken Tacy looked, the wind companies had been there first.

Dozens of people in their small town had already signed lease options that would allow wind towers on their properties. Two Burke Town Board members had signed private leases even as they negotiated with the companies to establish a zoning law to permit the towers. A third board member, the Tacys said, bragged about the commissions he would earn by selling concrete to build tower bases. And, the Tacys said, when they showed up at a Town Board meeting to complain, they were told to get lost.

—Helen O’Neill, Associated Press

John Yancey, Tug Hill (Photo ©AP, Heather Ainsworth)

The following article describes the impact of the wind plant on the people of the Tug Hill plateau (Lowville, NY).  It appeared in Yahoo News, 8-16-08, by Helen O’Neill of the Associated Press.  RiverCityMalone thinks it’s worth reading.  The Editor.

“Listen,” John Yancey says, leaning against his truck in a field outside his home.

The rhythmic whoosh, whoosh, whoosh of wind turbines echoes through the air. Sleek and white, their long propeller blades rotate in formation, like some otherworldly dance of spindly-armed aliens swaying across the land.

Yancey stares at them, his face contorted in anger and pain.