[MassHistPres] Fwd: Wind Farms

Sat May 1 07:52:44 EDT 2010

Brian, 

The "procurement fee" by ISO NE study for wind required Grid upgrade is $10 
 billion dollars. The MMS draft and final EIS state the cost of energy is  
twice that of the current market. This is AFTER public subsidies equal to  
77% percent of project construction cost (BHI Suffolk University), estimated 
as  $2 billion dollars.
Transmission upgrades required, undetermined.  Bonding for the project  and 
its performance, undetermined. 
And the operation and maintenance contract O&M for offshore wind is  
considered by energy analysts as 10 times more costly than land-based  wind; 
percentage-wise second only to the capital cost of construction. All  of these 
costs, that the developer states are the Cape Wind "Coca Cola Secret",  will 
be passed on to the National Grid rate and U.S. taxpayers. This is an "if  
all goes well" scenario" presented by an LLC, that has never constructed a 
wind  turbine on land as approved by one man, Secretary Salazar. Cape Wind  
entered negotiations with National Grid in December of '09, for a Power  
Purchase Agreement.  The same day contract negotiations were  announced, National 
Grid announced an $11 million dollar rate  hike.  Cape Wind is seeking ARRA 
"stimulus" funding to offset 30% of  construction costs, with Siemens', a 
German company, with their monopoles  (foundations) currently being shipped to 
the UK from China. What  economies are we stimulating? 

Exactly!  This is business!  We have emotion driving this  debate.  
Citizens need reliable and affordable energy.  We have in  hand irreplaceable 
aesthetic and historic assets, environmental  values, tourism, and marine trades 
that Cape Wind  threatens.  The risks and costs are all ours in exchange for 
 promises made by an LLC.  Do you believe in corporate social  conscience?  
Enron "'Zond" put GE in the wind business.  

I can cite special interest legislation to which you refer and express  
valid concerns regarding.  

Thank you for your insightful and sober comments.  Our cynicism is  
warranted.  Who is prepared to sign up to pay twice their current  cost, net, net, 
net, for their electricity?  The wind may be free, but  the cost of its 
delivery is staggering.  

Thank You!

Barbara Durkin 
Northboro, MA 
(508) 612-4133

Supporting documentation available by your request
_bjdurk at aol.com_ (mailto:bjdurk at aol.com)     

In a message dated 5/1/2010 1:53:46 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
badrigian at msn.com writes:

I  understand the strong desire to do the right thing for the future of our 
 environment; perhaps the wind farms are a means to this end and perhaps  
not.

What concerns me is that this project will permanently  interrupt an area 
of natural beauty.  Does this tradeoff open the  door for windmills to be put 
anywhere they can be fit in. Who's to say  what area is acceptable or not 
acceptable?  If we did away with most  billboards on the highways as a 
respect to the natural environment why would  we want to look at 130 steel 
windmills and a transmission building from a  beach.

I am quite skeptical about a project that, as I read in  the newspaper, has 
not released its costs and that the costs will be paid in  large part by 
the taxpayers and consumers of National Grid.  How can  anyone really latch 
onto this if the costs, the burden of those costs and  the benefits have not 
been clearly explained and beyond that how  can proponents of this project 
expect support without answering these  basic questions.  The past few years 
have had enough stories about poor  fiscal management;  the big dig comes to 
the top of the list.  Has  it been explained just what the profit formula is 
for the developer of this  project?  At the risk of sounding cynical: in 
this era of special  interests buying favorable legislation I can only hope 
that that has not  happened directly or indirectly with this project.  Finally 
we  should  not lose sight that this project is a business. 

I  hope we are not being led by our emotions for a clean  environment.

Thanks for your time.

Brian  Badrigian 

____________________________________
From: Bjdurk at aol.com
Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2010 23:47:59 -0400
To:  beb100acrewood at comcast.net; masshistpres at cs.umb.edu
Subject: Re:  [MassHistPres] Fwd: Wind Farms

Barbara:

You make fine points in a respectful  manner.  I particularly appreciate 
the sensitivity you demonstrate  toward Native Americans whose leaders 
describe Secretary Salazar's  decision as a slap in their face.  The Tribes contend 
that locating  their ancients' countless remains over 10,000 years is not  
realistic.      

I think you romanticize Cape Wind  windmills of yesteryear that bear no 
resemblance whatsoever to 130, 440'  steel and fiberglass industrial turbines, 
spanning an area the size of  Manhattan Island, with red flashing lights, 
day and night, along with sirens  and fog horns.  

I embrace historic preservation,  particularly of Nantucket Sound, 
conservation and nuclear power that is  efficient, with a small "footprint", clean, 
and half as expensive as offshore  wind energy.  Industrial wind energy 
requires constant fossil fuel  back-up energy sources as wind is intermittent, 
and wind energy is  unreliable.  There have been no conventional energy 
plants taken  off-line by introduction of wind documented in the world.   
Denmark, the cradle of wind energy, has not decreased their harmful  emissions.  We 
do not tie by index our generous public subsidies  wind requires to 
reduction in harmful emission by wind energy.  So, wind  energy is a faith-based 
initiative.   The driver is public  subsidies.  

I agree.   Let's come together and explore sound scientific and economic 
energy solutions  that will allow us to retain the integrity of the windows to 
 our Nations' past.   

Most  Respectfully, 

Barbara  Durkin
Northboro,  MA 

Resources:

There is a  growing international resistance to wind energy for the 
aforementioned  reasons as the following protest schedules reveal.   

TORONTO April 28. 2010 -Wind Concerns  Ontario, a coalition of 44 citizen’s 
groups from across the  province protest against Big Wind. 

"Each and every one of you  need to take the time, one day, a workday, to 
travel to Queen's Park to stand  up and to speak up! Take one day to support 
all who say NO to twenty years+ of  an industrial wind installation in our  
communities!"

http://windconcernsontario.wordpress.com/2010/04/19/ontarians-to-march-at-qu
eens-park-halt-to-wind-development/

30th  of April there is a demonstration in Tokyo Japan.

15th of May Germans  demonstrate in Berlin.

21st of June there is a second demonstration in  Canada.

29th of August a protest concert in South Sweden. 

Nettie Pena's 'They're not green'  documentaries well worth viewing on  
YouTube:    

_http://www.youtube.com/user/penaproductionsinc_ 
(http://www.youtube.com/user/penaproductionsinc) 

My colleague and friend, Mark Duchamp, of  Spain has command of 
environmental issues related to wind turbines regarding  Scotland, in particular.  This 
is his Website:  

_http://www.iberica2000.org/es/Articulo.asp?Id=1228_ 
(http://www.iberica2000.org/es/Articulo.asp?Id=1228) 

'Wind Energy Myths vs Reality' (context fossil fuels v wind) 

_http://www.masterresource.org/category/energy-myths-vs-reality/_ 
(http://www.masterresource.org/category/energy-myths-vs-reality/) 

Getting deeper, Robert L. Bradley, Jr. Policy Analysis, well  referenced 
cost v. benefits:  

_http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-280.html_ 
(http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-280.html) 

'UK offshore wind costs at least twice nuclear: study'
LONDON
Mon  Mar 8, 2010 1:05pm EST
Related News
LONDON (Reuters) - Generating  Britain's electricity from offshore wind 
farms is likely to be at least twice  as expensive as nuclear power, according 
to a new report by engineering  consultants Parsons Brinckerhoff.
_http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6274S520100308_ 
(http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6274S520100308) 

In a message dated 4/30/2010 9:46:00 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
beb100acrewood at comcast.net writes:

Has anyone  seen the beautiful wind farms on Prince Edward Island?   
Although  they are built on the island they are visible from both land and  sea.  
The people of Canada appear to embrace this source of clean  energy as well 
as continuing to preserving their heritage.

Cape  Cod and many towns that lie on oceans and bays had windmills built on 
 the shores.  We consider any remaining as historic properties and will  
fight to preserve them, rightly so.

As former chair of  Wareham's Historical Commission I fought long and hard 
to remove the stigma  of "hysterical historians" from being used in our town 
by preserving our  history while being realistic.   I see this continuing 
battle  against Cape Wind becoming labeled as such.

Isn't  it possible for us to work together for the greater good of this 
state,  country and the world and continue to honor our  past?

Archaeological surveys could identify and document any  remaining Native 
American burial grounds.  However the ocean is  destructive in its own way and 
I wonder what it anything remains. This is an  emotional issue for many 
people including the First People and I would not  presume to understand why 
they feel as they do about Nantucket Sound.   I have not walked in their 
moccasins.

The issue of their  sunrise ceremonies is more difficult.  However if it 
was part of my  belief system I would prefer to honor it with a ceremony that 
includes wind  turbines than ever increasing toxic pollution.  In my humble 
opinion  this would fit in with their belief to think of the impact of their 
 actions for five generations.  

This is written with deep  respect for the people who have lived here for 
thousands of  years.

I feel that environmental concerns should be the  foremost consideration in 
whether or not to build wind farms.   

As a proud Scot I would not be adverse to clean energy wind  turbines built 
in the seas surrounding Scotland.  I do  not think it is environmentally 
appropriate that oil wells  have been driven there especially after the recent 
oil well explosion and  spreading oil slick. We hopefully learn from our 
mistakes.  

I am sure that at sometime in the past my ancestors from  many parts of the 
world used land that is now under the sea.   What peoples in the world have 
not occupied land that is now under  water?

We must try to come together and make decisions that  preserve our 
environment.  The alternative will not be so  very pleasant for our descendants.

Barbara  Bailey

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