[SustainableTompkins] Oppose Legislation That Threatens De-centralized Wind Power

[senecajean at aol.com]

In addition to the arguments cited below this legislation would especially, in my opinion, threaten municipal and other small scale wind power projects thus virtually ensuring that any wind projects that did get approval would go to large corporations who could meet the regulatory requirements as well as any fines, which was no doubt the intent as regulations are designed to meet the needs of corporations.

And of course anything which jeopardizes renewable energy sources hampers the already far too slow and limited efforts to curb global warming!!

"...the National Audubon Society, pointing to the link between global warming and the birds and other wildlife that scientists assert it will kill, said it 'strongly supports' properly sited wind power as a clean energy source"

Telephone numbers, websites and addresses of the congressmen of the Finger Lakes area listed below.

Jeanne Fudala




New Legislation Would Bring Wind Power to 'Grinding Halt'. By Carl Levesque, American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), May 21, 2007. "Legislation just introduced and slated to move quickly in the U.S. House of Representatives would bring new wind energy development in the U.S. to a grinding halt, AWEA Executive Director Randall Swisher warned on May 18. Introduced this week by Congressman Nick Rahall (D. WV), and scheduled for action in early June at the House Resources Committee which he chairs, H.R. 2337 would burden wind power with sweeping new requirements that have never applied to other energy sectors, Swisher said, noting: The bill would direct the U.S. Fish Wildlife Service (USFWS) to review every existing and planned wind project, a mandate far beyond the agency's resources and capabilities, and criminalize operation of wind energy facilities not formally certified by USFWS... Under the legislation, landowners and farmers with wind turbines on their property would be subject to invasive inspection requirements... Landowners and farmers could face jail time or a $50,000 penalty for putting a wind turbine, regardless of whether it is for personal use or of a commercial scale, on their property without certification by the USFWS director... A National Academy of Sciences report released earlier this month concludes that wind turbines caused less than 0.003% of human-cause bird mortality -- one thousand times lower than bird mortality associated with house cats. Last November the National Audubon Society, pointing to the link between global warming and the birds and other wildlife that scientists assert it will kill, said it 'strongly supports' properly sited wind power as a clean energy source... AWEA is asking its members to contact their respective Representative and urge him or her to oppose the anti-wind provisions of H.R. 

The bill would impose: 

Imprisonment and a $50,000 fine for placing a wind turbine on private property without first gaining approval from bureaucrats including the head of the U.S. Fish Wildlife Service. 

Impose a heavy-handed “solution” where there is no significant problem: 

The bill claims to protect birds by placing onerous new regulations on wind turbines. 

Meanwhile, vastly more birds – on a scale of 10,000 to less than one – are killed by house cats and plate glass windows than by wind turbines. 

The bill completely ignores the most serious effects of continued reliance on traditional fossil fuels, human-induced global warming, which the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has associated with mass extinctions of species. 

 

 

Please email or call your Representative to request that he or she oppose the Subtitle D Anti-Wind Energy Section of H.R. 2337. 

use theses links: Action Alert; AWEA]. 

U.S.HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MAURICE HINCHEY (22nd District) - City of Ithaca, Towns of Ithaca and Danby; 

Also includes Sullivan, Ulster, Tioga, Broome, Delaware Counties. Other Cities and towns include Binghamton, Owego, Spencer, Poughkeepsie 

NATIONAL: 2431 RAYBURN BUILDING, H. O. B., WASHINGTON, D.C. 20515 

(202) 225-6335 

or 

LOCAL: 123 SOUTH CAYUGA ST., SUITE 201, ITHACA, NY 14850 (607) 273-1388

http://www.house.gov/hinchey/ 

MICHAEL ARCURI (24th District) - Towns of Caroline, Dryden, Enfield, Newfield, Lansing, Groton, and Ulysses. Also Includes Cortland, Seneca, Chenango Counties and portions of Tioga, Cayuga, Broome and more. 

327 CANNON HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON, D.C. 20515-3224 

(202) 225-3665 

or 

LOCAL: 16 CHURCH STREET, CARRIAGE HOUSE RIGHT, CORTLAND, NY 13045
(607)-756-2470 http://arcuri.house.gov/ 

JOHN “RANDY” KUHL (29th District)-Includes all of Schuyler, Chemung, Steuben, Yates, Allegany, Cattaraugus, SE Monroe (but not Geneva), most of Ontario 

NATIONAL: 1505 LONGWORTH BUILDING, WASHINGTON, DC 20515 (202) 225-3161 

or 

LOCAL: P.O. BOX 153 22 BUELL STREET, BATH, NEW YORK 14810 (607) 776-9142 

http://kuhl.house.gov/ 

 

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