Fruit Ridge area scouted for wind farms

I can't wait to hear all the people share the reasons why this should not happen...and in the next paragraph tell why they are hurting from the gas/oil prices.

I think trying to harness wind is a great idea!

Good Morning Neko!

Why is this technology so expensive? It is a simple technology.....May be a windfall profit tax should be applied to big wind.

Trouser Cough wrote:

I think trying to harness wind is a great idea!

My wife would disagree with you on that....

Actually I think it is a good Idea. If you had the money for a personal one (price of a expensive car or so) with out disturbing neighbors, that would also be a good idea.

Let the opposition begin! Those wind turbines kill birds! And they're also ugly! The township will be working hard to regulate them and I'm sure the legislature will be working hard on figuring a way to tax them on top of the taxes we already pay on our electricity. In the meantime, the existing power companies in the state already are supporting a bill in the legislature that limits the amount of power generated by entities other than them.
Oh, and I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if congress already has a way dreamed up to increase federal taxes onwind generated power.

Let the battles begin!!!

For crying out loud......you all scream about prices for oil and gas and then scream when part of the solution is available. Go and and stick your head in the ground and maybe this crisis will disappear without your help. But, I doubt it.

The article mentions Kent County, yet none of this is taking place in Kent County. Chester Township is in Ottawa County, 8'th Avenue & Gooding is also not Kent County.
Fruit Ridge is in Kent County, yet none of this is taking place near Fruit Ridge.
8'th Avenue is more than 4 miles from Fruit Ridge.

Directions aside, why can't an American company make these things? I thought the Govenor went out of the country on one of her trips to tour a factory where these were made?
Don't we have factories sitting empty here?
Don't we have workers sitting on their bums waiting for work?

Let's see, we have the land, we have the empty factories, we have the employess.....but lets' have an international company from SPAIN build these things for us.
Smart thinking!
Too bad I don't agree with it.

Microcosm wrote:

Actually I think it is a good Idea. If you had the money for a personal one (price of a expensive car or so) with out disturbing neighbors, that would also be a good idea.

That's the rub for personal wind turbines. Most of the opposition to them will come from neighbors with the perception that they are ugly. Then others will come up with the argument that they will kill birds. Just look at the attempt in the northeast to install a wind farm offshore. Some of that came from Ted Kennedy. As long as you have subdivisions going in that ban all outdoor antennas, there will be opposition to personal wind turbines. The townships are already starting to mobilize on this issue NIMBY!!!!

Kill birds? Oh yeah....I've seen pictures of these wind generators with huge piles of dead birds under them....NOT.

Every darn politician and local citizens should really look at this in a positive light, we need more alternative energy. This is a great step in the right direction.
God Bless America.

welcome to GR wrote:

Directions aside, why can't an American company make these things?

Because we have a government that is owned by the oil and coal companies. It would be counter-productive.

TDJensen wrote:

Kill birds? Oh yeah....I've seen pictures of these wind generators with huge piles of dead birds under them....NOT.

Facts never stopped antis. You can bet that the enviroterrorists are getting ready to battle this "terrible" idea.

Gentle Taz wrote:

<quoted text>
That's the rub for personal wind turbines. Most of the opposition to them will come from neighbors with the perception that they are ugly. Then others will come up with the argument that they will kill birds. Just look at the attempt in the northeast to install a wind farm offshore. Some of that came from Ted Kennedy. As long as you have subdivisions going in that ban all outdoor antennas, there will be opposition to personal wind turbines. The townships are already starting to mobilize on this issue NIMBY!!!!

Ah yes, the dead bird theory. Don't any of these idiots remember all the birds that were killed in the Exxon Valdez oil spill?

I used to work for a cellphone company back in the day when they were just getting started. Nobody wanted to let us put up towers on their land because the towers were "ugly." Guess what, 5-6 years later, we had people calling us asking us to put a tower on their land. They realized they would get paid for it AND get better reception. I think the same outcome may be true for windmills. The NIMBYS will prevail at first, and then finally someone will pull their head up out of the sand and will make a profit AND have cheaper energy. People are just so darned afraid of anything that isn't the status quo.

It's about time. Like previous post's, it's a darned shame that a foreign company has to take the lead. To all those who oppose, there are only so many ways to produce energy. Would you rather have a nuke plant next to you? How about a coal fired plant, or even better, a natural gas fired plant that takes fuel away from those who heat their homes with it? We need energy, and the wind is FREE [so far].

I looked up wind power for the home. $38,000. Right.......

If the bird is stupid enough to fly into one of these then he deserves to die! Like they can't see the darn things to leave them alone....

Gentle Taz wrote:

Let the opposition begin! Those wind turbines kill birds! And they're also ugly! The township will be working hard to regulate them and I'm sure the legislature will be working hard on figuring a way to tax them on top of the taxes we already pay on our electricity. In the meantime, the existing power companies in the state already are supporting a bill in the legislature that limits the amount of power generated by entities other than them.
Oh, and I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if congress already has a way dreamed up to increase federal taxes onwind generated power.
Let the battles begin!!!

Wind turbines kill far fewer birds than many other things. I think the reason people use this as an objection is that sometimes endangered birds are killed by them, so the impact seems greater. One solution would be to build them far from any Bald Eagle nesting areas, for instance.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power

"...studies show that the number of birds killed by wind turbines is negligible compared to the number that die as a result of other human activities such as traffic, hunting, power lines and high-rise buildings and especially the environmental impacts of using non-clean power sources...... In the United States, turbines kill 70,000 birds per year, compared to 57 million killed by cars and 97.5 million killed by collisions with plate glass."[74]

I personally would welcome having one in my neighborhood, if it meant we could create cleaner power. The cost is comparable to natural gas, but does not burn fossil fuels or create exhaust.

Coal mines scar the landscape and allow harmful chemicals to seep into the groundwater. Oil tankers spill their cargo and cover hundreds of square miles of ocean with sludge. Corn-based ethanol must be burned. All of these things create pollution. Even water power requires building dams, flooding large areas, and displacing people and wildlife.

Wind energy does not do any of these things.

By the way - there are American companies that can do this, so I agree with everyone there. Here is one: http://www.lorax-energy.com/

The other main argument against wind power, other than having a giant tower looming overhead, is that they don't give consistent energy. The usual approach to this is to store the energy until it is needed. Large-scale operations are much more cost-effective than home-based operations.

Plus, there are tax incentives in most states for using wind power, since it's considered 'green'.

CoopMom2 wrote:

If the bird is stupid enough to fly into one of these then he deserves to die! Like they can't see the darn things to leave them alone....

They fly into our sliding glass doors all the time...yikes, shouldn't have said that...now the environment police are going to come to my house and make me take down my sliding glass doors!