Long Island Wind NIMBY’s
I was perusing the news wires earlier today when I came across this gem of an article from New York’s Newsday.com. It seems that the Long Island Power Authority is in the planning process for an offshore wind farm in the Jones Beach region on the south shore of Long Island. Their plan is for 40 wind turbines at 400 foot high that’ll be capable of producing 140 megawatts, enough to juice up 44,000 homes, and would be up and running by 2008.
Now, of course, there are some locals who are opposed to this project, as there would be anywhere something of this magnitude was planned. There’ll be NIMBY’s in every crowd, it’s just human nature. Now, one of the group’s primary complaints seems to be that the wind farm is going to ‘mar their views‘. Alright, that could be a valid point, but here’s the kicker. The wind farm is going to be 4 miles offshore!!
I realize that we aren’t to going to make a lot of progess in terms of moving to renewable energy sources by shoving this stuff down people’s throats. Everyone has some level of rights, and while I’d be quite proud to have a 400 foot high wind turbine in my backyard, I understand that’s not everyone’s cup of tea. But to complain about a wind farm that’s going to be 4 miles offshore is just stupid.
The group raises other concerns like the current higher cost of generation with wind versus fossil fuel gen, the flashing navigation nights that’ll be visable at night on the turbines and of course the inevitable ‘it’ll kill all the birds!’ argument. Valid points, possibly, but to object because it’ll mar your view 4 miles offshore, isn’t.
Here’s the article at Newsday.com.
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POSTED IN: Green Utilities, News, Wind
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