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North East PA Draft Wind Energy Ordinance – Who Does it Protect? Hint: Not You

April 16, 2013 by Paul Crowe

500 foot wind turbine in Wisconsin

What’s out of place in this picture?

We seem to be on the verge of doing something in North East that could be very unwise. On April 15th, at the North East PA township supervisors meeting, a draft of the wind energy ordinance was presented. The ordinance is based on this template available online written in 2006, (Model 3 of the template). Except for a few very minor changes, it was presented to the public, as is, yet the downloadable document is not supposed to be a finished ordinance, it’s only designed as a guide to be adapted to the requirements within each community. The document’s introduction even states the enforceability of its provisions are not guaranteed.

Model Ordinance for Wind Energy Facilities in PA

They are intended for use as general templates for municipalities to review and adapt to their own particular needs. Please keep in mind that these sample model ordinances are merely models, and should be used only as a guide in developing or amending your own ordinances as they pertain to wind energy facilities. No assurances are made regarding the enforceability of any ordinance. Each municipality should confer with its own solicitor regarding such matters.

On the page where the document is available, it also states:

Note: This model ordinance was designed to provide guidance to local governments that wish to develop their own siting rules for wind turbines. While it was developed as part of a cooperative effort involving several state agencies, the model itself has no legal or regulatory authority.

Who wrote this model?

Who writes the regulations?Since North East seems ready to adopt this model as their own, we might want to see who these agencies and groups were that wrote it in the first place. Who do they represent? What is their position regarding wind energy?

The work group consisted of:

the Governor’s Office, DEP, DCNR, PA State Association of Township Supervisors, County Commissioners Association, Wind Energy Associations and Penn Future with the assistance of DCED

Taken one at a time:

  • Governor’s office – (Ed Rendell in 2006) the umbrella under which the group was organized
  • DEP –  Department of Environmental Protection – advocates for wind energy
  • DCNR – Department of Conservation and Natural Resources – advocates for wind energy
  • PA State Association of Township Supervisors – one of the groups for which the model was written
  • County Commissioners Association – one of the groups for which the model was written
  • Wind Energy Associations – any wind energy groups, including industry groups, advocating for wind energy
  • Penn Future – a very politically active environmental group advocating for wind energy as one of its primary missions
It looks like the wind developers and promoters are well represented. The groups strongly in favor of building turbines have provided a very wind friendly ordinance that serves their own interests, but who’s protecting the interests of the residents of North East township? You would expect it to be the township officials and planning office, but in their very reasonable search for guidance, the model ordinance they found and chose to follow wasn’t meant to protect us. It protects the developers. Would you ask a fox for guidance on how to protect your hen house?

A few examples of errors and omissions

  • Height restrictions – there isn’t a single word mentioning height. What if today’s giant 500 foot tall turbines are superseded by some future, super giant 1000 foot model? It might sound crazy, but there’s nothing in the ordinance to stop them from building one.
  • Hours of construction – heavy equipment running 24 hours a day? Nothing in the ordinance about it.
  • Hours of road use – tie up roads with material and equipment delivery when people are driving to or returning from work? Block highway entrance and exit ramps? Block roads while raising power lines? Oversize and super loads move very slowly. No mention.
  • Noise – Audible noise no more than 55 dBA at the exterior of any occupied building on a non participating property. Louder anywhere else? Louder inside the house? Louder inside an outbuilding? Louder on some days due to weather conditions? Vibrations you can feel but not hear? Well, it was quiet when we were there. You must be exaggerating and vibrations aren’t mentioned.
  • Removal during decommissioning –  everything must be removed to a depth of 36 inches. So, that 50 foot diameter, 400 ton, steel reinforced concrete base will be just 36 inches below the surface. It doesn’t look like that portion of the farm will be returned to farming.
  • Signal disruption – Interfere with radio, TV, telephone and Doppler radar signals? Well, they must make “reasonable efforts” to avoid doing that and mitigate any harm if they do. Problems with your Dish or Direct TV or cell phone? Hey, they tried to make it better. Sorry.
  • Inquiries and complaints – they must supply a number to call and they must “make reasonable efforts” to respond to complaints. Really, seriously, they tried, you were just unreasonable.

It protects the wind developers – not you

There’s more, but you get the idea. This isn’t written to protect you, the North East township resident, it was written to protect the wind developers. Why are we using it?

What if, as noted at the beginning of this article, the provisions of this document turn out to be unenforceable and there’s a problem? What then? Who is responsible? Who pays to fix what’s wrong?

Instead of starting with a document written in the interest of wind energy developers and proponents, making it easy to build turbines in a location unsuitable for these massive structures, why not engage the services of legal counsel experienced in protecting communities from the effects of wind turbines and write an ordinance any developer has to meet if he wants to install any turbines, whatsoever? If they can’t meet the North East community’s requirements, then no turbines.

No wind turbines in North East, … that sounds like the best idea yet.

Filed Under: Wind Turbine Ordinance

What can you do?

  • Be informed! Read as many articles on this website as you have time for, so you can understand the issue. Do your own research. Check us out.
  • Tell your neighbors about the wind turbines, point them to this website so they can learn more.

Comments

  1. N. Swan says

    April 20, 2013 at 9:52 pm

    I HIGHLY recommend watching this documentary. It highlights ALL of the concerns that I had learning about the proposed wind turbines in North East. Maybe we could have a public viewing like Gas Land.

    • N. Swan says

      April 20, 2013 at 10:05 pm

      http://windfallthemovie.com/

  2. N. Swan says

    April 20, 2013 at 9:52 pm

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBYjZG8O6qE

  3. Yvonne S. says

    April 21, 2013 at 12:41 am

    It’s in the process of happening N. Swan!
    Y. S.

  4. Merle says

    June 9, 2013 at 9:08 am

    Again all I see is your one side of the story, to be fair you need both the good and bad, your video has a man saying blades turn at 150 mph, NOT TRUE all people in the video are one sided
    You need to have both good and bad , then let the people make there own choice .
    Make sure your town has a good ordinance, With the right set backs, that are fair to all.
    I have set up groups to go on trips to talk to people in a wind farm project area , we talked
    to people that lived in the village, the landowners that signed leases, the ones that did not,
    the board members and so on , did not talked to the developer , got the good and bad
    then went back and talked as a group
    . We worked with our town to come up with zoning that’s good for all , not just one sided
    The people that live in the village, people that don.’t want to sign need to understand
    they do not have all the say, the landowners that live in a project area that do pay large tax
    bills have rights to.
    You will always have people that are for something, or against it.
    Every project that I have looked at you had the people that didn’t live in the area trying to
    tell the one that did what to do. (Westfield Ny. the people in the village had signs, (good idea bad location) How is it fair that they can tell a farmer or large landowner what right for there land ????
    THE RIGHT ZONING TO BE FAIR TO ALL,

    1000′-1200′ FEET FROM HOMES , 500 -600′ FROM ROADS AND PROPERTY LINES OF NON LEASE, Non leases within a area of the project should get a payment
    Also instead of use of a 1.5mw turbine let them use a large one 2.5mw,
    which in turn will be less turbines for a project. Keep the project under 100mw,
    or so, Your right we are not out west were you can put them every were .
    But you can make it work.

    • Teresa Sculley says

      June 16, 2013 at 12:12 am

      Merle, you are right about one thing. I shouldn’t tell my neighbor what to do with their farm, land or home. In the same respect my neighbor shouldn’t tell me that I should tolerate numerous 500′ noisy stationary dinosaur in their backyard. I can put up a fence to block out a neighbor’s purple house or ugly water feature but even my fence can only be so high. My neighbor must put up a fence around an in ground pool for safety and liability. My neighbor has to post a permit of changes to put up a structure or addition that might block the view from my yard or home. The township zoning office has neighbor notification forms to get approval for changes. I was at a meeting where a change in zoning was requested. The neighbors in this rezoning area were to be notified of the changes so that they would understand the impact of the changes. I live within .03 miles of this turbine area and I never received notification from my township or my neighbor! Why? If it is such a good idea to have 500′ wind turbines in the neighborhood, why not tell the neighbors? Why keep it a secret?

    • Tammy C Truitt says

      July 5, 2013 at 12:02 pm

      The proper zoning is key. In order to protect citizens from the blade throws, ice throws, shadow flicker and low frequency noise, a mile setback from non-hosting residents and at least 2,000 feet from roadways is needed. In Europe, the standard setback is 1 km or more. In California, there are areas that have a 3/4 mile setback.
      The only reason setbacks of less than 2,000′ are being proposed is because these projects will not fit with less. State and Federal officials refuse to get their hands dirty so they leave it up to local officials who are blinded by the economic promises of Big Wind.

  5. Abby L. says

    June 9, 2013 at 4:32 pm

    Merle — You’ve suggested twice that this website should post the good and the bad. I suggest that if there were anything good to say about turbines, somebody would say it. Why can’t I find a “we love turbines” website? I think it’s because there is nothing good to say about them. — Abby L.

    • Merle says

      June 9, 2013 at 9:10 pm

      Maybe there happy with what they have so they don’t have to post anything.
      Pa. is one of the leading states to have wind power, and your gov. see it as a
      plus along side the other thing your great state has to offer. Nat. gas,oil solar
      and so on. Go to a wind farm and talk to the people.

  6. Tom Wasilewski says

    June 17, 2013 at 4:05 pm

    Height restrictions indeed are needed in the ordinance–

    whoever said future industrial wind turbines may be 1,000 feet in height not 500 feet high was correct. Right now in Denmark they are doing research on wind turbines which are 750 feet high (top of the turbine blade). They say the larger the wind turbine-both the blades and height -the more electricity it will produce. The people of Denmark are finally saying NO to land-based wind turbines. So look for even bigger turbines for North East and the rest of Erie County. Thousand feet high wind turbines are certainly a possibility unless the American taxpayers and electric ratepayers say ENOUGH ALREADY concerning this Wind Turbine Energy Scam.

Unfortunately

The less you know about wind energy,
the more you'll like it.

Why wind developers never understand …

It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.

~ Upton Sinclair

Don’t know – Don’t care

Is willful ignorance necessary
to promote wind energy?

No, but it helps.

Climate Change

Another thing I must point out is that you cannot prove a vague theory wrong. … Also, if the process of computing the consequences is indefinite, then with a little skill any experimental results can be made to look like the expected consequences.

~ Richard Feynman, 1964

It’s not on-demand, it’s no-demand

Wind energy is "no-demand" electricity. If the wind isn't blowing and you demand electricity, the answer is no.

Wind – expensive, inefficient, unreliable



December 1923 Popular Science cover dreaming about generating electricity from windmills, and though the dream never dies, the dream doesn't work, didn't then, doesn't now and without huge government giveaways of your money, no wind farms would get built anywhere. The government forces utilities to buy wind power so payments to landowners are simply wind welfare.


Wind energy runs on tax credits

"I will do anything that is basically covered by the law to reduce Berkshire's tax rate, for example, on wind energy, we get a tax credit if we build a lot of wind farms. That's the only reason to build them. They don't make sense without the tax credit."
~ Warren Buffett - from interview with Fortune magazine

Wind investments and high cost green energy

“I’m in the wind business … I’ve lost my ass in the business. ... Hey, we can get on everything green. We can get on everything renewable. Then the cost of power will go up ten times."
~ T. Boone Pickens - on Morning Joe on MSNBC

Wind Turbine Map

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The complete map of all of the wind turbines proposed by Pioneer Green Energy in Erie County, PA and filed with the FAA. Plans not yet filed are not shown.

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