"Not only are we sacrificing the beauty of our landscape, but our wildlife as well. As you are aware, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service has expressed concern about the suitability of the Allegheny Front for wind farms due to its use by migratory birds and raptors as well as bats." High wildlife mortalities recently recorded at a recent wind installation in West Virginia "underscore the fact that this area has serious drawbacks as a suitable site for wind farms."
—Rep. Alan Mollahan, West Virginia, in a January 21, 2004 letter to the West Virginia Public Service Commission.
Simulation of Proposed Windplants Atop Backbone Mountain in Western Maryland
This simulation shows four of the 57 proposed 430 foot turbines—stretching nearly twenty miles—atop Backbone Mountain, Maryland's highest ridge, with windplant noise recorded 2500 feet away from an existing plant in PA. This sound has not been amplified or altered in any way. The number of turbines has been scaled back from 92-1.5 MW machines to the current proposal of 57-2.5 MW generators.
"Industrial windpower in the eastern United States exemplifies American business at its worst. Spawned, then supported, by government welfare measures at considerable public expense, it produces no meaningful product yet provides enormous, virtually risk-free profit to a few wealthy investors. It is an environmental plunderer, with its hirelings and parasites using a few truths and the politics of wishful thinking to frame a house of lies. It will not reduce air pollution or the combustion of fossil fuels. Even if the wind industry was fully deployed in the uplands of the East, coal plants would still be puffing away, their numbers actually increasing, while many thousands of gigantic wind machines would glut the landscape—killing wildlife, destroying culturally significant viewsheds, devaluing property, and creating major disturbances for those who live nearby. And, because the air would be getting dirtier, people everywhere would be getting sicker while paying more in rates and taxes.
Corporate wind is yet another extraction industry relying upon false promises and the gullibility of those seeking easy solutions to complex problems. Wind developers—and the people and politicians who support them—live hundreds of miles from their handiwork. Many who live in Garrett County, however, resent the pillage of our mountains, the destruction of our wildlife, and the devaluation of our property to support an industry that is a poster child for irresponsible development."
