October 25, 2012: Yankton Press and Dakotan – “Wind Tower Fire Reported Near Crofton“

And why does this matter to the folks on the Allegheny Front? – “The fire was located at the top of the wind tower, which is part of the newer section of towers in the area. High winds at the time sent some sparks flying, which briefly ignited some small grass fires.”

Unlike Nebraska, we don’t typically have “grass fires” in the mountain forests.

Courtesy of Windtoons

Ironically, and you’ll see why when you read the letter, the Editor has not yet published Mr. Terry’s important commentary, which we are pleased to post for your review and comment.

Mr. Terry’s letter begins:

Editor

The Inter-Mountain

Elkins, WV

Editor: In this age of tweets, texting and email, I believe the best way to communicate an idea is a good old fashioned letter. I also believe that, capable as they might be, Senators Manchin and Rockefeller and Congresswoman Capito won’t know what we expect them to do if they don’t hear our wishes. I rarely use email to contact politicians because the on-line forms they use require me to characterize my message by assigning it to one of the categories they’ve chosen, like defense or health care. I’ve always had the feeling that picking a category encourages the staff member going through the week’s emails to look only at your category and add you as a check mark on a “pro or con” list with no consideration of the fine points or justification of your concern.

I don’t write to the President because I doubt that my message would ever get through, but as a homeowner in Randolph County, I contact our West Virginia Senators and Representative several times a year with the expectation that my suggestions and observations will be heard. I know that those representing us at the federal level can’t possibly be aware of everything that’s going on at home so I tell them what I think they ought to hear.

I’ve received my share of responses from Manchin, Rockefeller and Capito that were off topic or where they thanked me for whatever and told me that they were glad I wrote. All this tells me is that they got my letter, but not that they read it. This week I received a response with Senator Manchin’s facsimile signature that angers me and brings up a serious question. My letter, which included data, studies and pictures, told Senator Manchin that I opposed the wind production tax credit, a government subsidy that has been on and off for the past twenty years and is set to expire on December 31^st of this year. My letter was clear that this is a poor use of the Country’s limited tax resources and that I was firmly against the Wind PTC renewal. Senator Manchin’s reply was, “Thank you for contacting me to share your support for the Renewable Energy Tax Production Credit.” He then went on to detail his support for subsidies for every form of energy and the various bills he’s supported or cosponsored. How could he get this so wrong?

Every politician on the national scene has to maintain several offices in their state as well as one in Washington. Each of these offices has to have staff members to answer the phones, return messages, schedule meetings and advise the Senators and Representatives on what’s going on. I believe that this support staff is not without social, environmental and political bias. It makes me question who is in charge and who the information gatekeepers are.

My experience is not unique. It should make us aware that a vote for a certain politician is not a vote for that man or woman, but a vote for the honesty and integrity of the staff and advisers he or she surrounds themselves with and how willing they are to consider the wishes of their constituents.

John Terry

Montrose, WV

Mr. Terry’s letter ends.

AT note:  Mr. Terry is a retired educator, creator of Windtoons.com, and a member of the Allegheny Highlands Alliance and the Laurel Mountain Preservation Association.

The Polish government also appears to be waking up. Will we?

Will the members of the US Congress who wish to continue handing your hard earned money to huge profit-based corporations finally wake up and allow the Production Tax Credit to expire at the end of the year, as planned?  Contact your representative and tell them to end the Production Tax Credit.

Find your US Representative here and your Senator here!

Well, Edison Mission and Mineral County WV also have a financial agreement.  The lawsuit from the Indian manufacturer lawsuit states, as part of the reason for Edison Mission not paying what is due, the “precarious financial situation of Edison.”  Suzlon mentioned in the complaint that it is concerned the Edison unit may have to file for bankruptcy, a point I’ve addressed on this blog previously.

You see, our County Commissioners signed a Decommission Agreement for the eventual removal of the 23 turbines installed above Keyser, WV and the obligation to honor the agreement now rests, I assume, with Edison Mission, or one of it’s LLCs.  That fact alone gives me pause, but the real problem with the decommission agreement, as I see it, and expressed to the Commissioners before they signed the agreement, is that the escrow set aside to remove the turbines after scrap value is considered is … wait for it … $0 dollars, except for a small percentage for administration fees.

At the time I suggested to the Commissioners that the shortfall could be as much as several hundred thousand dollars.  After further consideration, I estimate the cost for transportation alone for items not adequately covered in the consultant’s assessment on which the escrow value was reached, may well put us in jeopardy to the tune of $750,000.  That’s a lot of money, even in super wealthy Mineral County, WV!

So what happens if Edison Mission goes belly up?  I don’t really know.  I have a gut feeling that the Commissioners who signed this agreement even after being warned of the shortfall don’t know for certain.

I would be happy to be proven wrong … but so far I haven’t seen anything that gives me hope.

Save Western Maryland

Date: September 22, 2012

URGENT:  For Immediate Release

Contact: Kimberly Connaughton 301-616-9693

Constellation Energy Files for ITP

In 2010, Save Western Maryland, an Oakland based grassroots community action group, filed a federal lawsuit against Constellation Energy after Constellation Energy released information that their project had identified the presence of the Federally Endangered Species: the Indiana Bat.

The Criterion Industrial Wind Project on Backbone Mountain is in violation of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), due to the presence of the Indiana Bat and the documented bat mortality within industrial wind projects.  Before the case made it to trial, Save Western Maryland agreed to stay the proceedings so that Constellation Energy could apply for an Incidental Take Permit (ITP).  An ITP creates an exemption to the ESA where the operators of projects are required to take action to prevent harming endangered species, and in so doing an applicant that obtains an ITP thereby comes into compliance with the ESA so long as the ITP is adhered to during the project’s operational lifespan.  Constellation Energy has submitted its application to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) for their ITP and the document can be reviewed at: http://www.fws.gov/chesapeakebay/EndSppWeb/Criterion_documents.html

According to a report released by the USFWS in August 2012, the Criterion Power Partners industrial wind project has the “the highest estimated avian fatality rate at a wind project in North America, 16 birds per wind turbine”.  This landmark ITP will set an important precedent in the regulation of industrial wind power projects.  It will be the first time for the USFWS to approve mitigation measures and a habitat conservation plan in the Northeast, and perhaps the first time anywhere in the continental United States. Representing Save Western Maryland in the submission of comments is the law firm of Meyer, Glitzenstein, and Crystal, whom holds unparalleled expertise in this area.

Save Western Maryland urges concerned citizens to contact the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service with comments regarding the ITP application before the September 30, 2012 deadline.

Comments should be sent to:

Public Comments Processing,
Attn: FWS–R5–ES–2012–0032;
Division of Policy and Directives Management;
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service;
4401 N. Fairfax Drive, Suite 222;
Arlington, Virginia 22203

Among the tired old boilerplate served up by Ms. Bode in an effort to reach into your pocket for even more cash to benefit the wind profiteers is this gem in which she names both natural gas and industrial wind the “new flexible affordable generation.”  The implication is, of course, that both sources are far superior to nuclear and coal which cannot be easily ramped up and down to manage variations in demand.

But what is “flexible?”  Flexibility is defined as the ability to adapt to new, different, or changing requirements such as, in this case, demand for electricity.

Natural gas power plants are, in fact, flexible in that they can quickly come on line to meet variable requirements.  Natural gas is a demand driven fuel and can serve as both base load and in support of nuclear and coal.  Demand driven … as in, when you flip on the light switch you can start reading your book.

On the other hand, industrial wind is fully at the mercy of the wind.  Stating that industrial wind is “flexible” to meet demand is absurd and, of course, intentionally misleading.  The wind – the fuel supply for the industrial wind electricity generator – is on its own schedule creating a supply side flexibility … as in, flip the light switch and wait for a breeze.

Does Ms. Bode believe that people are actually stupid enough to accept her “flexible” generator suggestion?  The answer is … yes … she does!

And she’s right!  Just take a poll of your congressional, state and local officials.  A large number are willing to continue to toss more of your tax money at this energy impostor in the form of subsidies such as the Production Tax Credit.  After all, as lobbyists know all too well, filling campaign coffers with tons of cash has the effect of lowering a politician’s IQ.

Oh … I said yesterday I’d keep to topics a little closer to home!  Well, last month, the mental giants in Washington wrote a check in the amount of $44,184,807.00 on your taxpayer account to corporate giant Edison for simply building a wind project above my home town of Keyser, WV.  And they don’t really give a damn if the 23 turbine facility actually produces any electricity.

Again, please take a few moments to view the discussion:  Wind Energy Tax Credit a Help or Distorting the Market?

A few issues have popped up that deserve attention and, while they do relate to each other, I’d like to deal with them one at a time, rather than lump them together in a large, even more tedious post.

Let’s start with this item.

In April of 2012, Correspondent Tisha Thompson of NBC 4 Washington published an article titled Green Energy Has Residents Seeing Red – Turbine noise worse than neighbors expected.  The article dealt with noisy turbines at the Pinnacle wind project on Green Mountain above Keyser, WV.  As the article explained, residents are finding their quality of life destroyed by the noise from “wind farm” they supported.

I found this comment following the article, particularly interesting.

Countering local resident Frank O’Hara, on again off again wind spokesperson Frank Maisano couldn’t hold back stating – “I actually am not working for the wind industry currently.  I am responding to these outrageous mistruths because somebody has to inject actual facts into this discussion.“

Mr. Maisano continued, in response to the pending “award” of taxpayer cash to be handed over the the Pinnacle owners, with this:  “Again, the facts are that nobody will be applying for 1603 grants, as Mr. O’Hara claims they will. That is because the 1603 Treasury grant program actually expired in December. In any case, only one wind developer out of thousands actually received a 1603 Treasurty [sic] Grant. It just isn’t something that wind developers were including in their plans.”

Mr. Maisano wrapped with this, “Just the facts, ma’am. Something that Mr. O’Hara, “tossed out of office” Spiggle and the rest of the merry band of wind opponents won’t offer.”

As Ms. Thompson will attest, the comment section crashed shortly after the article was posted and my reply to Mr. Maisano could not be published.  I’ve provided it here for your reference:

Morgan:  “Mr. Maisano can’t seem to resist applying personal monikers. From his perch in Gambrills Maryland, some 170 miles from the nearest turbine, he happily designates folks suffering from turbine noise as “a couple of noisy complainers.” Perhaps he sees this feeble attempt to demean those who disagree as a winning strategy. Attacking opponents personally is much easier than debating the merits of industrial wind in the Alleghenies.

As example, in April of 2011, Mr. Maisano wrote a letter to the editor of the Cumberland Maryland Times attacking Dr. Wayne Spiggle and giving opponents the “merry handful” moniker. My response to Mr. Maisano was later published in the same paper and included a suggestion that the paper conduct a public discussion of industrial wind, inviting Mr. Maisano and his folks to join the “merry handful.” That offer still stands.

While Mr. Maisano remains oddly knowledgeable about the details of the Pinnacle project, I must take exception to his broad claim that “nobody will be applying for 1603 grants.” It is true that 1603 program expired at the end of the year, but the facts are that a project can still accept funds, provided it was placed in service in 2009, 2010, or 2011 or placed in service after 2011 but only if construction of the property began during 2009, 2010, or 2011. The Pinnacle project seems to meet these eligibility standards. Grant seekers must submit a Placed in Service application before October 1, 2012, so there’s still time for Edison to do so.

But if, as Mr. Maisano suggests, Edison Mission has refused to accept this approximately $40 million taxpayer funded grant, I will be happily surprised. It seems odd to me Edison would refuse these millions, especially since the Production Tax Credit for industrial wind is on thin ice and the President’s new budget, according to North American Windpower, has “de-emphasized” land based industrial wind, choosing instead to make offshore wind the cornerstone of his renewable energy policy. Contrary to Mr. Maisano’s claim, recent news articles note that many foreign wind companies are rushing completion of US based wind projects in order to take advantage of these very US taxpayer funded subsidies. And, of course, I haven’t yet heard profit based Edison Mission state this generous position and until I do, I’ll remain skeptical of Mr. Maisano’s statement.

From my vantage point, I cannot hear Pinnacle’s wind turbines, but I fully support a remedy for my neighbors who are experiencing these serious problems. These folks did not move to be near the turbines. They were promised there would be no issue and they actually supported the project. Only after operation began were they told by an Edison Mission representative that the Japanese turbines sitting atop Mexican made towers had never been used “around homes” and that “they didn’t know they made this much noise.” And for Mr. Maisano to simply dismiss these sincere residents of our community as “a couple of noisy complainers” is beyond reprehensible. It seems to me that Edison Mission’s community relations department should be thankful Mr. Maisano is “not working for the wind industry currently.”

I gladly accept being one of Mr. Maisano’s “merry band of wind opponents.”  Two years ago I supported industrial wind. My opposition grew as I moved past the heavily funded wind lobby hype and assessed industrial wind solely on performance and cost. This is what brings me to the conclusion that neighbors suffering from wind and health issues related to industrial wind cannot be comforted by the insistence that what they are experiencing is a necessary sacrifice. Industrial wind is, quite simply, a failed technology.“

Why bother to dredge up this old stuff?  It seems on August 23, 2012, the very same Pinnacle wind plant discussed in the NBC 4 article received $44,184,807.00 from U.S. Taxpayers under the very Section 1603 Award program Mr. Maisano tried to dismiss in his comments.

And what about the noise issues … the primary focus of the Ms. Thompson’s article?  The harmed residents appealed to the WV PSC for help.  Well, the WV Public Service Commissioners ruled that the folks complaining could not be protected by the WV Public Service Commissioners because … ready for it? … the WV Public Service Commissioners have no authority in the matter and, worse, they set no standards in the siting certificate for noise because, well, they didn’t seem to know how.  Bottom line, residents were told they could pursue the matter in court, with their own money, of course … and Edison was off the hook.  This decision, by the way, was made in spite of WV PSC Staff statements supporting the harmed residents.

Supported by State level incompetence, financially challenged Pinnacle owners, the Edison Mission Group, received the huge $44 million payout which was effectively removed from your pocket to be handed over to the massive Edison corporation.  By the way, the Section 1603 cash “award” is issued upon project completion, so there are no required production levels.  Simply build the project, tell the U.S. Treasury the project is complete and shazaam – the US taxpayer has less money to spend on things that really matter.

Since September, 2009, the Treasury’s 1603 Award program has paid out some $14,000,000,000.00 (b-b-b-b-billion) to renewable energy developers, with much more anticipated as the program’s payouts wind down.

One would think this generous amount, coupled with the Production Tax Credit (PTC), which, between 1992 and 2010, cost approximately $7.9 billion and, in the 2011–2015 budget window is estimated to cost American taxpayers another $9.1 billion of which about 75% will be claimed by the wind industry, would be enough to get you on your feet.

But industrial wind, perhaps the oldest ever infant industry, expects even more from taxpayers.  Industrial wind reminds me of the perpetual underachiever who, at 5o, still isn’t quite ready to cut the apron strings and move out.  At some point, you just have to kick them out and let them stand on their own.  For industrial wind, that time is long overdue.

At 7:31 this morning, according to the US National Debt Clock, the US Taxpayers are on the hook for an incredible $16,056,327,274,614.00.  See for yourself:

Stated another way: Sixteen Trillion, Fifty Six Billion, Three Hundred and Twenty Seven Million, Two Hundred and Seventy Four Thousand, Six Hundred and Fourteen Dollars we do not have … and that number is rising rapidly!

Well folks, it’s time to cut the subsidy cord!