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| Ordinance 341 is so radical and all-encompassing that even wind-powered devices aboard sailboats would be banned. (Image courtesy of YMCA.) |
Today, I wrote to the town council once again to express my opposition to the proposed wind power ban. I'm sharing the text with readers here.
By Linda Felaco
To the Honorable Members of the Charlestown Town Council:
I am writing to reiterate my strong opposition to Ordinance 341, which would ban the use of wind energy in Charlestown. On the day before Hurricane Irene struck Charlestown, I was in Galilee and stood below the wind turbine at Salty Brine State Beach, trying to hear this turbine noise some people have complained of. All I could hear was the crashing of the surf. The next day, the hurricane knocked out power to 80% of Charlestown, and for an entire week until power was restored, I was subjected to the noise of my neighbors’ generators. It seems to me that if people are concerned about noise, they should favor ways to be less reliant on National Grid, since we will always be subject to weather-related power outages where people end up using noisy gas- or diesel-powered generators.
Which isn’t to say that noise is the only objection to the use of emergency generators; far from it. Not only do they burn nonrenewable fossil fuels, but they are also a relatively inefficient source of energy and have no pollution controls and therefore lower our air quality. This is a particular concern here in Rhode Island, where 1 in 10 children already suffer from asthma.
Unless Charlestown were to turn back the clock and stop using electricity entirely, refusing to develop renewable energy sources means we are shunting the very real dangers of electricity production onto our neighbors who live near power plants. Not that we are or ever could be insulated from these dangers ourselves given that parts of Charlestown are within the 30-mile evacuation zone of the Millstone nuclear power plant in Connecticut should a Fukushima-type disaster occur there and of course we are all exposed to wide-ranging pollutants in the air from fossil-fuel-burning power plants. To pretend that Charlestown is some sort of coastal or agrarian haven that can somehow shield itself from the negative effects of power generation is at best foolish and at worst dangerously misguided. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: There’s no more time for delay. Banning a proven form of renewable energy that humans have utilized for thousands of years is a major step backward at a time when we need to be moving forward if we want to maintain our way of life.
Sincerely,
Linda Felaco
(As with my August letter, watch this space for any response I receive from the councilors.)
