Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick is in denial.
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Deval Patrick Returns With The Wind
By Green-Energy Analyst Barbara Durkin
Despite massive wind project failures in Massachusetts, Deval Patrick is not backing down, and has even introduced a new Wind Bill, while residents across the state are abandoning their homes to escape the scourge of turbines and the nightmares they bring.
The Massachusetts Wind Bill, also known as the Wind Turbine Siting Reform Act, or WESRA for short, has a Senate and House version:
- SD803 - Sponsored by Senator Finegold
- HD3320 - Sponsored by Representative Smizik
Even while Massachusetts citizens have four times expressed support for local control by rejecting the Wind Bill, Governor Deval Patrick is again pushing for the centralized power it delivers to the Governor’s Office. The Wind Bill attacks private property rights as it curtails opportunities for review and input by town boards and residents, and it eliminates important rights of appeal.
The Wind Bill would accelerate ongoing complaints of headaches, nausea, sleeplessness, vertigo, home abandonment by inverse condemnation, and a series of unacceptable and intolerable adverse impacts to humans, and property value, caused by the operation of industrial wind turbines.
Falmouth wind turbine victim, Barry Funfar along with 50 vocal residents, and the Plaintiffs of Falmouth, are demanding that the wind turbines causing their suffering for three years running be shut down.
Here's a short clip of their complaints.
Falmouth Votes To Remove Wind Turbines
FALMOUTH - The Falmouth Board of Selectmen voted to support removing the town's two wind turbines, and they will draft language for a warrant article to be presented at their regular meeting on Monday, Feb. 4 - in time to have the issue go before voters in the town's April 9 special election and then proceed to the general election in May.
On January 30, resident Barry Funfar sent an email to the Town of Falmouth and public officials that stated in part:
Time ~ 9AM until 1PM when I could no longer concentrate on my task. Hopefully the days of these home and quality of life wrecking machines is close at hand.
Our governor should come down and personally apologize to every victim of the Falmouth turbines. The hold he has on the State agencies to uphold his wind turbine goal is criminal. This is exactly why politics has such a bad reputation. The citizenry does not matter. It is only a matter of money and where it flows.
Sincerely,
Barry Funfar
Mr. Funfar communicated to his representatives in Falmouth and in the Senate in a subsequent email:
This is my second complaint today because of the unusually loud turbines. As I have stated many times, I normally avoid the turbines as much as possible. I do not want to hear their sound which often puts me into a panic attack condition where my blood pressure skyrockets, my pulse gets into the 170s up to 180, and I am immobilized for an extended period of time. These turbines have totally disrupted my life and I am certain that they are shortening it.
So, now we are in court against the Town of Falmouth. More stress, more anxiety, and even more health detriments. The sooner Falmouth gets rid of these machines the better off a great number of we neighbors will be.
As of January 2, 2013, fifty families have filed 350 noise complaints about Fairhaven’s wind turbines to the Fairhaven Board of Health.
In Kingston Massachusetts, according to the Boston Globe on January 20:
The collective frustration of the residents, after months of complaining about health issues related to the turbines, was voiced by one audience member who shouted at the board after the vote: “Shame on you.”
Scituate residents are also heading to court over turbine noise and health concerns.
Safety should be the most important public policy consideration, and the harm wind turbines are causing to Massachusetts families' health is undeniable and intolerable. This exit strategy only offers options for Falmouth, while most voters speaking to Selectmen want the turbines decommissioned completely. The cost of the health study alone pertaining to Falmouth’s two wind turbines is $388,000, which is funded by MA ratepayers.
The Wind Bill if enacted will compound adverse health issues by fast tracking wind development. The objective of the Wind Bill is to undermine local control and zoning protections. But, the health and safety of citizens is addressed by zoning that identifies building limitations in industrial, residential, rural, and commercial land areas to prevent incompatible land use. Haphazard development is what proper zoning avoids. Chaotic development translates to public safety and health hazards.
Massachusetts needs an ethics bill that slams the state's revolving door.
Maine is ahead of Massachusetts in wind development, and acknowledges the problems inherent when the regulator becomes the regulated. Rep. Adam Goode, D-Bangor, has sponsored legislation requiring executive employees “in a major policy-influencing position” to wait one year before accepting jobs with “a business activity that is regulated by the state or quasi-state agency by which the former executive employee was employed.”
The texts of the Wind Bills are not yet available on the state of Massachusetts' website, however, they can be viewed at www.windwisema.org.
Please call your representatives and ask them to oppose the Wind Bills, and to protect local control, public health, and private property rights.
Ask your representatives to reject:
- SD803 - Sponsored by Senator Finegold
- HD3320 - Sponsored by Representative Smizik
To find the name and contact information for your legislator, go here and click on 'Find A Legislator' in the upper center of the screen.
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Barbara Durkin is the green-energy reporter for the Daily Bail. She has spent the past decade interfacing with regulators and stakeholders in the Ad Hoc review of the "world's largest" Cape Wind offshore wind project. Her independent investigation of wind energy cost vs. benefits has expanded beyond the shores of Nantucket Sound to include land-based renewable energy.
Further reading:
Crony Capitalism At First Wind