Glenn R. Schleede letter to the Editor

July 27, 2006

The Editor
The Washington Times

Dear Editor:

Your July 27, 2006, story, "Energetic turn to wind power," is a perfect example of an apparently naive reporter being "taken in" by Washington-based industry lobbyists. The result is a biased, uninformed story about wind energy masquerading as "news."

You and your reporters need to realize that the wind industry and other wind advocates, including the US DOE, have for years been spreading false and misleading information about "wind energy."

If the wind industry or its sycophants in DOE were in fact able to get President Bush to "predict" that wind might someday supply 20% of US electricity needs, the President's staff needs to give him better protection from DOE officials and check facts before having him make more uninformed statements and "predictions."

Specifically, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) reports that wind provided 36/100 of 1% of US electric generation in 2005 and predicts that wind might provide 1.09% by 2030.

In fact, the wind industry and DOE have greatly overstated the environmental and energy benefits of wind energy and greatly understated the environmental, ecological, economic, scenic and property value costs. Their lobbying has led to faulty federal and state wind energy policies, tax shelters and other subsidies that:

1. Annually transfer millions of dollars from the pockets of ordinary taxpayers and electric customers to the pockets of a few large companies that own "wind farms" or manufacturer wind turbines.

2. Misdirect billions in capital investment dollars into energy projects ("wind farms" or "wind parks") that produce little electricity -- which electricity is intermittent, volatile and unreliable.

Thanks to citizen-led groups from around the US and other countries where "wind farms" have been proposed or built, facts about wind energy are gradually being exposed. Those facts are quite readily available if your reporter had looked for them instead of listening to obviously biased wind industry lobbyists. She would have learned, for example, that:

1. Tax avoidance, not environmental and energy benefits, has become the primary motivation for building “wind farms.” Currently, two-thirds of the economic value of wind projects comes from federal tax benefits.

2. Huge windmills – some 35 stories tall -- produce very little electricity, as demonstrated by the data provided above.

3. Electricity from wind turbines has less real value than electricity from reliable generating units.

4. The true cost of electricity from wind energy is much higher than wind advocates admit.

5. Wind energy has NOT been a great success in other countries. Denmark and Germany have residential electricity prices that are among the highest in the world and are experiencing many problems due to their use of wind energy. Opposition to wind turbines is also growing in other countries. Expectations that wind energy will make significant contributions toward meeting European Kyoto goals have been discredited.

If you or your reporter would like documentation for the above facts, please let me know -- or you might have her check such web sites as http://www.windwatch.org/ and http://www.windaction.org/.

Above all, please do not again let your reporters turn in such one-sided, uninformed stories.

Sincerely,

Glenn R. Schleede

18220 Turnberry Drive

Round Hill, VA 20141-2574

540-338-9958

cc: White House speech writers and fact checkers