Maryland faces the same energy
choices as the nation overall.
By Todd Larsen
Shortly
before Congress left for its long summer vacation, Senator Barbara Mikulski tried to block a 150-megawatt wind farm.
The
Maryland Democrat’s move would delay Pioneer Green Energy’s construction of the
project in her own state until an independent study from MIT concerning the
effects of wind turbines on naval radar testing at the Patuxent River Naval
Base is completed.
While
it’s understandable that Mikulski wouldn’t want anything to interfere with a
major military installation, what makes her move inexplicable is that Pioneer
Green Energy is already working with the base to ensure that its wind farm
won’t disrupt the base’s radar, as required by law.
This
is just one of many attempts to kill wind farms. Opponents have lodged about 50
lawsuits in this country and around the world against wind projects because
they allegedly cause “wind turbine syndrome,” a discredited condition first
described by a pediatrician in 2009. The alleged symptoms of the syndrome range
from headaches to sleeplessness to forgetfulness. These symptoms haven’t held
up in court: 48 of the 49 suits have been dismissed.
Wind
power foes also object to clusters of turbines for aesthetic reasons and their
potential to reduce property values. This concern doesn’t pass the sniff test
either. An extensive Energy Department study found no “consistent, measurable,
and significant effect on the selling prices of nearby homes.”
Other
opponents fear that turbines will kill tons of birds. In reality, wind farms
aren’t nearly as deadly to our feathered friends as office buildings and cats,
just to name two major avian killers. And when was the last time you heard
about someone trying to ban buildings and cats to save birds?
Even
when the opposition to wind power fails — which it often does — the resistance
hurts wind farm developers. It also sends a chilling message to an industry
that lacks the deep pockets of fossil-fuel companies and lobbyists. And those
oil, gas, and coal special interests are funding many
of the attacks on wind and renewable energy in the first place.
What
makes these assaults on wind particularly troubling is that the United States
is rapidly moving forward with several projects that will ramp up domestic oil
and gas production.
In
fact, the United States is now on track to be the world’s top oil and gas
producer, and is a net oil exporter for the first time since 1995.
Much
of this increased oil and gas output is being extracted through hydraulic
fracturing, or “fracking.” And the toll of this method is becoming increasingly
clear. From contaminated drinking water, to polluted air, to ruined
infrastructure from endless trucks carting water, fracking is leaving its
devastating mark on towns across the country.
Fracking,
and fossil-fuel extraction in general, also contributes to boom-and-bust
economies that siphon most economic benefits out of local communities, which
are then left to deal with the resulting devastation on their own.
Maryland
faces the same energy choices as the nation overall. While Mikulski’s
legislative maneuvers may kill a major wind farm, Dominion Energy is working to
build a $3.8 billion liquefied natural gas export terminal on Maryland’s
Eastern Shore called Cove Point. That facility would endanger local
communities, increase pollution, and ramp up fracking in nearby states —
potentially leading to fracking in
Maryland itself — while boosting natural gas prices in the U.S.
market.
A
Maryland judge recently ruled that zoning laws and the Maryland Constitution
were violated in permitting Cove Point, which will slow the project. That gives the state and Cove Point’s Wall
Street backers time to heed the concerns expressed by opponents of this
dangerous facility.
Ideally,
investors could shift the $3.8 billion going to Cove Point to wind power. That
move would increase East Coast wind production by 50 percent, and create over 7,500 jobs.
It would also serve as a model for the country in how to invest in a clean
energy future.
Todd
Larsen directs Green America’s corporate responsibility
division. GreenAmerica.org
Distributed via OtherWords.org
Distributed via OtherWords.org