Wind Power Gets an Environmental Pass in New York State (Power NY Act's Article X vs. grassroot environmentalism)

Joke: ‘When is an environmentalist not an environmentalist? …. When it comes to windpower.’

[This press release from August 10th is reproduced in its entirety. A description of the sponsoring organizations follows.]

The North-American Platform Against Windpower (NA-PAW) objects to the passing of the “Power NY Act” on August 8th. Also known as “Article X”, this law reverses decades of democratic rights in New York State.

Municipalities no longer have the power to veto harmful projects targeting their constituencies. Albany bureaucrats will decide where energy and other industrial projects are to be built, and the people will have to bite the bullet.

Says Sherri Lange, NA-PAW’s CEO: “I believe New Yorkers won’t take it lying down. I have faith in the North American spirit: we won’t let politicians take away our freedoms.” Sherri is also founder and president of Toronto Wind Action. She has her own “article x” to fight in Ontario: the Green Energy Act, which equally tramples citizens’ rights.

Wind Favoritism

It is believed Governor Cuomo repealed the right of veto from municipalities so as to impose numerous industrial wind facilities on them. But citizens are increasingly concerned with health issues associated with these industrial installations. Recent peer-reviewed scientific studies have shown that wind turbine syndrome is not imaginary. Infrasound and low-frequency noise emitted by wind turbines cause insomnia, headaches, stress, nausea, and more. This is confirmed by research from Dr Nina Pierpont, and by an epidemiology study by Professor Carl V. Phillips.

There are also concerns regarding the destruction of jobs in tourism, recreational industries, and elsewhere as subsidies increase public deficits, causing taxes to be raised. Other harmful effects include the killing of rare bird species such as eagles and falcons, of migrating birds, and of the very bats that help NY farmers save millions of dollars in pesticides. Water contamination, forest fires and reduced property values are also of concern.

Taxpayer Issue to Begin With

NA-PAW disapproves the un-democratic process which led to the vote of Article X. Citizens were not consulted, yet they will pay a high price for this. Sherri Lange said:

We will fight Article X with determination and with all our heart. North Americans have had enough of the wanton destruction of their great countryside and wilderness by monstrous machines that don’t deliver on promises. Home Rule must come back to New York State and to Ontario.

NA-PAW has received the support of the European Platform Against Windfarms (EPAW). Its CEO, Mark Duchamp, warns that the huge cost of renewable energies is in part responsible for the crisis that is shaking the Euro: “Spain, for instance, is paying €8 billion ($11.3 billion) in subsidies to renewable energy every year. This makes it difficult to contain the national debt, while unemployment won’t come down from 20%. It is truly unsustainable.”

Indeed, confirms NA-PAW, it has been found that green jobs are actually killing twice as many regular jobs, as evidenced by a report from economist Dr. Gabriel Calzada published by King Juan Carlos University in Spain.

An Italian study by Carlo Stagnaro and Luciano Lavecchia, researchers at the Instituto Bruno Leoni, found that five jobs are destroyed for each green job created.

No wonder Spain and Italy are facing economic gloom and doom.

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Sherri Lange CEO, NA-PAW (North American Platform Against Wind); Founding Director, Toronto Wind Action; Executive Director, Canada, Great Lakes Wind Truth

Mark Duchamp CEO, EPAW (European Platform Against Windfarms); President, Save the Eagles International

The North American Platform Against Windpowerwas created to stand for the interests of the ever-growing number of organizations and individuals in Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, Canada, and the USA who oppose individual wind energy or transmission line proposals; question the effectiveness of wind power in helping to solve our energy problems; work to protect wildlife and landscapes from industrial wind power development; and/or fight the damage of wind energy facilities to tourism, the economy, and people’s quality of life, health, and amenity.

NA-PAW also stands with the European Platform Against Windpower (EPAW), which was founded in Paris on October 4, 2008, by groups from four E.U. countries to unify and direct their efforts toward the European Commission. Since then, more than 480 groups from 22 countries have joined EPAW, along with dozens of messages of support from around the world. Click here to read about EPAW’s call for a moratorium on wind turbine construction in Europe.