Reasonable Or Not?
It appears that a number of wind energy projects are currently on hold while the Department of Defense conducts a study on the effect the farms might have on radar sites. Proponents of the projects charge that this is all a delay caused by the effort to halt the Cape Cod wind project.
CHICAGO — More than 130 wind turbines are proposed for the hilltops of central Wisconsin, but that project and at least 11 others have been halted by the Defense Department as it studies whether the projects could interfere with military radar.
Wind farm developers, Midwestern legislators and environmentalists say the farms pose no risk, noting that there are already numerous wind farms operating in military radar areas. They say a renewable, domestic source of energy such as wind is crucial to energy security and independence.
They say their wind turbines are victims of the ongoing dispute between Cape Cod residents and developers of the proposed Cape Wind farm in Nantucket Sound. The Defense Department study was put in the 2006 Defense Authorization Act — inserted, say wind farm developers, by senators who want to block Cape Wind.
"This legislation was intended to derail Cape Wind, but it had a boomerang effect and affected a lot of projects around the country," said Michael Skelly of Horizon Wind Energy, a Texas company constructing the country's largest wind farm near Bloomington, Ill.
It may very well be that the Senators who are trying to block the Cape Cod project did do this, but isn't it a question worth knowing the answer to? I rather suspect it is. I've mentioned repeatedly that wind power will not solve anything at all and is pretty well a taxpayer funded boondoggle. But if the wind farms actually could cause trouble for our early warning systems, we need to know that.
By Mike's America, Saturday, 10 June , 2006 @ 8:58 pm
So does this mean that Cape Cod will turn itself into a radar station to avoid the wind turbines that threaten the view many miles offshore that can only be seen when Ted Kennedy and John Kerry sail by on their yachts?