Mailbag: Wind: European Groups call for Wind Energy Moratorium

National Wind Watch supports European call for wind energy moratorium*

European Platform Against Windfarms (EPAW) also calls for study of wind
power's record to determine its true benefits, costs, and adverse impacts

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Rowe, Mass., Jan. 15, 2009 -- On the morning of October 4, 2008, before
the second national protest against industrial wind energy development
in Paris, several groups from France and other European countries agreed
to form the European Platform Against Windfarms (EPAW).

On November 24, with more groups having already joined them, EPAW
publicized a letter [1] that they will send to the Commissioners of the
European Union and Members of the European Parliament.

The letter calls for an immediate moratorium on wind energy projects
throughout the E.U. and independent study of wind energy to assess its
carbon savings and its economic, social, and environmental impacts.

National Wind Watch supports this call and wishes them well.

We have a lot to learn from Europe, where there is a long experience
with substantial presence of wind energy on the grid. The time is long
overdue that regulators and planners should stop talking about what wind
energy "can" do and start examining what it actually has done.

North America and the rest of the world also should heed EPAW's request
for a reality check.

In December 2008, the British Wind Energy was forced by the Advertising
Standards Authority to reduce by half its claims of how much carbon
emissions might be reduced by wind energy. [2] This and other claims by
the wind energy industry need to be examined by independent experts, so
that energy policy is based on facts rather than sales material.

On the other side of the scale, the industry has long downplayed adverse
impacts as "in the past" or aberrations. In recent years, however, the
cumulating effects of industrial wind energy development, along with
heavy-duty support roads and transmission infrastructure -- on wetlands,
on birds and bats, and on human neighbors -- has become impossible to deny.

Organizations devoted to protecting raptors and bats have expressed deep
concern about the siting of giant wind turbines where they can endanger
these animals. [3] And a forthcoming peer-reviewed epidemiological study
by Dr. Nina Pierpont of Malone, New York, describes the effect on people
as "wind turbine syndrome", a common and consistent set of symptoms that
include tinnitus, nausea, and depression. [4] When people suffering from
this syndrome leave the area, the symptoms subside. Several families
have had to abandon their homes to regain their health.

On January 9, 2009, the New York Supreme Court annulled a town law
regulating large wind turbines because the town board did not take a
"hard look" at relevant areas of environmental concern, and it
disregarded study committee recommendations for setbacks and noise
standards to protect the health and well-being of residents. [5]

Everyone involved in promoting and supporting the spread of industrial
wind needs to take a "hard look" at the facts. As Eric Rosenbloom,
president of National Wind Watch, said, "If we have learned anything
from the last eight years, from the collapse of Enron who helped create
the modern wind industry [6] to the demise of Lehman Brothers who
invested heavily in wind to avoid paying taxes [7], we can not trust the
players themselves to look out for our or the environment's interests.
We need policies based on facts, not promotional materials or wishful
thinking."

/References/
[1] http://www.epaw.org
[2] http://www.wind-watch.org/news/?p=20985
[3] For example: Wilderness Society and Center for Biological Diversity,
http://www.wind-watch.org/documents/?p=1165; American Society of
Mammalogists, http://www.wind-watch.org/documents/?p=1039; North
American Symposium on Bat Research,
http://www.wind-watch.org/documents/?p=1037; Virginia Dept. of Game and
Inland Fisheries, http://www.wind-watch.org/documents/?p=158; Hawk
Migration Association of North America,
http://www.wind-watch.org/documents/?p=1202
[4] http://www.windturbinesyndrome.com
[5] http://www.wind-watch.org/documents/?p=1198
[6] Most notably, Enron invented "green tags" to sell wind energy
production twice. Also see: "Enron's Ken Lay asks for Texas Gov. Bush's
help in securing tax credits for wind",
http://www.wind-watch.org/documents/?p=1055; "How the White House Energy
Plan Benefitted Enron", http://www.wind-watch.org/documents/?p=1075
[7] http://www.wind-watch.org/news/?p=20756

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National Wind Watch is a nonprofit corporation established by
campaigners from around the U.S. in 2005 to promote knowledge and raise
awareness of the negative environmental and social impacts of industrial
wind energy development. Information, analysis, and other materials are
available on their web site: www.wind-watch.org.