Residents of Pennsylvania are now selecting electricity suppliers and their choices include wind energy, as part of the ChoosePAWIND program (www.choosepawind.com), according to Don Hopey in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
“Pennsylvania’s green energy consumers now have a choice, just like when they’re buying produce,” Katie Bellezza, marketing manager for EverPower Wind Holdings Inc., said during a news conference at Duquesne University, where the initiative was launched Thursday. “Buying local wind-produced energy supports jobs and the emerging development of alternative energy and encourages a diverse energy supply.”
“Everyone should know they have a choice about where they get their electricity,” said John Hanger, former state Department of Environmental Protection secretary. He also said that wind energy produces no carbon, soot or mercury emissions that affect thousands of people every year. “This is a big choice, a tremendously important way to improve Pennsylvania’s economy and environment and save lives.”
According to the wind coalition, there are 17 wind production facilities in Pennsylvania with a total capacity of more than 800 megawatts, enough to power nearly 240,000 homes. That’s still just a little less than 1 percent of the state’s energy needs, but 23 new wind facilities are under development and will eventually generate 6.4% of the state’s electricity.
In West Virginia, there is about 600 MW of installed wind power with another 1000 under development. When the 1800 MW level is reached, it will represent about 16% of the electrical power needed in the State.
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Fracking is not clean. The intentional contamination of hundreds of billions of gallons of fresh water with formaldehyde (the active ingredient in embalming fluid), bromide, neurotoxins,…and the incidental contamination with radioactive uranium, radium and alpha-emitters is a very dirty business. The dispersion of those fluids to water treatment facilities, land fills, deep disposal wells, and on roads as deicers is criminal. Support an immediate ban on hydrofracking in your state. Farmers and land owners should be compensated for keeping that resource in its natural storage facility. Judicious use of that resource to support the development of a dynamic but sustainable local and regional economy should be considered. The current plan is pipe this resource south to the Gulf of Mexico and off to China, France and England. Greed has summarily dismissed logic.
Look at the picture above. Then extend it in your mind’s eye to include an economically viable number of wind turbines along a mountain ridge. Has anyone thought about the size of the wind turbine footprint, vs. the size of a finished gas well pad? Take a look at the acreages discussed here:
http://www.newsreview.com/reno/wind-power-raises-questions-from/content?oid=823833
Also, consider that the picture shows a finished wind turbine installation, while most pictures of gas wells show them under construction. Has anyone actually looked at a wind “farm” under construction? How much heavy equipment do you suppose has to be trucked to the mountaintops and how much bull dozing do you think it takes? Has anyone published a picture of a finished gas well? It’s not very newsworthy because there really isn’t much to photograph.