A response to yesterdays Windmill blog from Kolin Jan

I received the following e@mail from Kolin Jan on yesterdays blog. It had many attachments with it, some were from unknown sources and some known, but all left out vital information on making an informed decision on the proposed windmills. I thought I would share Kolin's letter with you and my response.

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Gary,
From something you wrote today it appears you have bought into the US WindForce propaganda....especially the part about jobs. Here are several emails that might help you discover the rest of the story on this issue. The jobs are very temporary.....check out what has happened at other locations....and the advertised permanent jobs are inaccurate. Industry-wide you can expect one permanent job per 10-13 turbines (ask Jim and Joe to prove to you otherwise). I care about the environmental impacts, but what I care more about is the science behind the turbines, and how ineffective and expensive they are.
I don't blame US WindForce for taking advantage of what an uninformed Congress has allowed; after all, we're a capitalistic society. I'd just like these guys to tell the whole truth for a change and answer some basic questions in a public arena. r/ Kolin

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Kolin,

You don’t know me very well. I have been a student of Wind Energy most of my life. In grade school and high school I did science fair projects in generating electricity from the wind and won many awards up to national levels, including awards from Fortune 500 companies for my research. I have personally visited the large windfarms on the west coast and stood beneath those at Tehachapi Pass. My family generated electricity from the wind as far back as the 1930’s on their farm. I’m not some Johnny Come Lately to wind energy. I have done my own research both literal and empirical.

The information that you forwarded to me is mostly propaganda and misleading. It is not independent information you are disseminating as the truth, it comes from the anti-windmill, anti-growth faction. That being said the information coming from US Windforce is going to be favorable to their side of the issue. That is why I do not rely on the information from either source, but do my own research. My 30 years of study and experience with wind energy does tell me that US Windforce’s information is much closer to the truth than the true propaganda you just forwarded to me.

Sir, it is you relying on propaganda from only one side and distributing it to an uninformed public. I am not uninformed on this issue and I am not a NIMBY. I want to see growth in my community. I want to see jobs brought to my community. I know that you are not from here, but I think you have been here long enough to realize we are not bunch of Hillbillies. The stereotypes of West Virginia are not real. We are an educated people that can think for ourselves.

You state you want to see US Windforce answer questions in a public arena; they do the first Monday of every month. In the forum they answer most of the questions on the spot, if it is something that needs detail and cannot be answered off the cuff, then they defer it to a later meeting. They are hiding nothing as you imply with your statement. Those meetings are public and open to those that wish to attend.

I suggest you do some research of your own instead of relying only on information from the anti-wind, anti-growth loons.


Respectfully

Gary Howell

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NIMBY = Not in my backyard