Friday, March 23, 2012

Wind Farm in the Glades - Another "train to nowhere"

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Another Scam in Palm Beach County.

With the promise of 300 temporary jobs over nearly 13,000 acres in the heartland of the Everglades as well as the threat of killing off our wildlife by twirling blades, Burt Aaronson, a Palm Beach County Commissioner who never lets us down said, "All these people out of work are endangered species too." The Unions used their clout and lobbied its passing because of jobs. More jobs, more members. More members, more dues. Everyone should know by now that the Unions just cost government billions in wasted money usually to themselves.

Literal beacons of the "green" energy movement, giant wind turbines have been one of the renewable energy sources of choice for the US government, which has spent billions of taxpayer dollars subsidizing their construction and use across the country. But high maintenance costs, high rates of failure, and fluctuating weather conditions that affect energy production render wind turbines expensive and inefficient, which is why more than 14,000 of them have since been abandoned. It is just a matter of time that the wind farm in the Glades will go the same route.

Before government subsidies for the giant metals were cut or eliminated in many areas, wind farms were an energy boom business. But in the post-tax subsidy era, the costs of maintaining and operating wind turbines far outweighs the minimal power they generate in many areas, which has left a patchwork of wind turbine graveyards in many of the most popular wind farming areas of the US.

Read the rest of the story.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has gathered data on a region-by-region basis to identify the nation’s wind-energy resource.The results of this effort are contained in the Wind Energy Resource Atlas of the United States. The Southeast region consists of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and South Carolina.

“There is little wind energy potential in the Southeast region for existing wind turbine applications (Zabransky et al. 1981). Even along coastal areas, existing data from exposed sites indicate at best only class 2 at 50 m (164 ft) above ground. The only places in the Southeast region estimated to have class 3 or higher annual average wind resource are the exposed ridge crests and mountain summits confined to northeastern Georgia and extreme northwestern South Carolina.”

Did we eliminate that one wind tower on our beach redevelopment? We waste more money in this country on "trains to nowhere."

4 comments:

Richard said...

Why do they keep pushing these wind gizmos. No wind and they wont work. Storage batteries? LOL
The cost to maintain? Look at the true figures before going ahead with this. What will it do to the enviroment? I wonder how they will hold up during a hurricane. Poof they will be floating in Lake Okeechobee or eastern PB County.

Anonymous said...

Read about a big horror story here.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2116877/Is-future-Britains-wind-rush.html

Frank J. Morelli said...

Two Bad Ideas

Last week the Palm Beach County Commission decided to grow and burn sugarcane on the old Mecca Farms property, and this week the Commission approved 12,900 acres of wind turbines that will ultimately employ 15 to 20 skilled workers in the Glades, where more than 4000 residents are looking for jobs.

Unemployment rates in November were 44.9 percent in South Bay and 30.4 percent in Pahokee.

Environmental groups are concerned about the negative environmental impact of over one-hundred, 30 story high fans. Besides there are less expensive and more efficient ways to conserve energy like the renewable, geothermal, self-sufficient Free Enterprise Agency plan that I proposed three years ago for the Glades.

If the county had employed that plan there would now be 2000 permanent light manufacturing jobs in the Glades.

Burning sugarcane off the Mecca Farms property is a really bad idea. In the Glades burning is a long standing practice and anyone who moves under the rain of ash cannot complain, but residents who are already situated next to the old Mecca Farms debacle are entitled to continue to enjoy clean air.

I believe the Commissioners are about to buy more lawsuits. Why close sugar production in the Glades, take away their jobs, only to create a nuisance and jobs in Palm Beach Gardens?

Not only will environmentalists sue to prevent the Mecca Farms sugarcane burning, but nearby residents will have a cause of action sounding in nuisance.

I proposed the creation of a county association to be formed to construct and operate a job training and production facility for 2000 workers. The then President of the Florida Senate Jeffery Atwater favored the plan. I drafted legislation and offered it to Senator Larcenia Bullard who proposed a modified plan for Miami-Dade.

Commissioner Aaronson, usually a cautious member of the Commission favors the Wind Turbines and wants to proceed without hearing from environmental groups.

I think that is a mistake. Environmental groups are poised to stop 114 whirling fans that will only employ 10 to 15 workers and the fast moving blades will kill 40times that many birds each year.
Burning and turbines are two really bad ideas for the economy and the environment.

Frank J. Morelli, Wellington

Lynn Anderson said...

Mr. Morelli-
I am going to put your comments up tommorow am as a guest blogger. Contact me at lynn113@comcast.net if you do not want your comments to appear on the front page of this blog.
L