Tweet
Opposition to the Granite Mountain Wind Energy Letter
I sent this letter today and wanted to share it with you. BTW this would be a good time to send the petition to Brad Mitzelfelt and Carrie Hyke, Sarah. Their emails are in the Cc. 5/5/08 was supposed to be the deadline for public comments, but I found out from the county supervisors office we can send comments,letters,or emails until they vote, Enjoy!
Best, Max7
County Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt
supervisormitzelfelt@sbcounty.gov
P.O. Box 1463
Victorville, CA 92393
Cc BLM Principal Planner Carrie Hyke chyke@lusd.sbcounty.gov, BLM Field Manager Roxie Trost roxie_trost@cablm.gov, BLM Environmental Coordinator Edy Sheehafer eseehafe@blm.gov, Analyst for Brad Mitzelfelt Andrew Silva asilva@sbcounty.gov, Town of Apple Valley Administrative Analyst Linda Mayfeild lmayfield@applevalley.org, Town of Apple Valley Mayor Timothy Jasper, Town of Apple Valley Mayor Pro-Tempore Bob Sagona, Town of Apple Valley Council Member Peter Allen, Town of Apple Valley Council Member Scott Nassif, Town of Apple Valley Council Member Rick Roelle, Town of Apple Valley Town Manager Jim Cox, Town of Apple Valley Deputy Town Manager Patty Shady, Town of Apple Valley General Plan Advisory Committee Ian Bryant, Daily Press Staff Writer Tatania Prophet tprophet@vvdailypress.com, Daily Press Editor Don Holland dholland@vvdailypress.com, Daily Press Reporter Brooke Edwards bedwards@vvdailypress.com, President George W. Bush comments@whitehouse.gov, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Senator Barbara Boxer, Senator Dianne Feinstein
RE: GRANITE MOUNTAIN WIND ENERGY PROJECT / APPLE VALLEY, CALIFORNIA
Dear Supervisor Mitzelfelt,
I write in opposition to the GRANITE MOUNTAIN WIND ENERGY PROJECT as it would impact the value of my family's home, ruin our million dollar view, threaten wildlife, and result on the loss of recreational access.
Land:
The High Desert Renewable Energy Campaign, in response to several state statutes and federal policies, believes San Bernardino County's vast acreage of what they call "Undeveloped land"- what I call BLM Public land- provides considerable opportunity for renewable energy. Their pending plan includes the right of way to over 290,000 acres of BLM land! The Granite Mountain Wind Energy Project will be the some of the first 80 acres you will not have access to anymore; they will take our lands.
I am also concerned about the impact that construction, traffic, and visual pollution, i.e. over head transmission lines, and twenty eight 415 ft. high, bright white wind turbines, with flashing strobe lights, will have on our communities.
This is our public land that we would give away. The project will set a precedence that we do not care about our access to our land! This is only the beginning; if we don't stand up now there are hundreds of other similar shelved projects waiting for clearance that will potentially effect recreational/ educational enrichment. For those who like to hike, dirt bike, ATV, explore, off road, rock hound, site see,etc., BLM lands will be FOREVER changed, ruined, and unavailable. You have a responsibility to place public need first. Keep public land out of private hands!
Home Value:
In the past year and a half, I was married, we bought our first home in Apple Valley, and had our first child, a beautiful baby girl. Because of the country's current recession "type" conditions and plummeting real estate market, my one year old home purchase, according to the assessors office has lost over forty thousand dollars in value. Sure the economy will bounce back some time in the next year or two as will the real estate market, however, the Granite Mountain Wind Energy Project will not add value to my home!
Twenty eight, 415 Ft. high wind turbines will be visible to many Apple Valley and Lucerne Valley residents. Deteriorating road conditions, noise, strobing lights, property devaluation, disturbance of wildlife, are just a few of the issues we are concerned with. In an already rapidly declining real estate market, one might consider that the projected impact of a highly visible wind farm would have a additional negative effect.
"Do wind turbines affect property values?
A survey of property assessors in the UK found that a nearby wind power facility lowers property values by up to 15% a year for two years, after which the effect starts to level out. In the US, neighboring residences are often bought by the wind power company, which then rents them to people who agree not complain about the noises and vibration. , it must be remembered that in most places,values property values typically increase steadily. So any slowing down of that normal rise because of the construction of wind power facilities is in fact a loss of value.
Common sense says that given two otherwise identical properties, the one that is not next to an industrial wind power facility or whose view does not include such a facility is likely to be considered more valuable. " (Source: http://www.wind-watch.org/faq-economics.php)
The Town of Apple Valley has declared that "we want to be know as the 'Beverly Hills' of the High Desert Communities." Beverly Hills would never allow this project.
Money:
The private Granite Wind LLC / RENEWergy LLC will profit from our irresponsibly allocated tax dollars. Because of incredible tax advantages, huge corporations have invested heavily in wind power. There are no tax advantages for Apple Valley denizens.
"Since the wind is free, will wind power reduce my electric bill?
The wind is free, but the turbines and their maintenance aren't, not to mention the transmission infrastructure that must be overbuilt to support them. Subsidies are designed to keep the price competitive with other sources but not lower. And if the price is indeed lower, as with all of our energy it's because more of your taxes are going to the wind power companies." (Source: http://www.wind-watch.org/faq-economics.php)
Efficiency:
Wind energy is not efficient. If the wind does not blow, the wind mills do not produce power. Replacing your light bulbs or reducing hot water use equals the amount in saved energy than the proposed project could produce. The power that the wind mills generate at peak will be less than 1% of needed power; the power goes on the Southern California grid and does not directly benefit the citizens of the Town of Apple Valley.
"Why then do utilities generally support wind as a renewable power source?
Actually, they don’t. In Japan, as reported by Asahi Shinbunon May 18, 2005, utilities severely limit the amount of wind power on their systems, because... 'introducing too much of the electricity, whose supply can fluctuate wildly, can cause problems for utilities’ power grids. ... If there is no wind, the utilities must rely entirely on other facilities." (Source-National Wind Watch-and Vermonters with Vision)
The windmills slated for operation in Apple Valley's Granite Mountains is reported to have "a lifetime of 25 to 30 years, after which it will be decommissioned, removed, and the area will be restored to its pre-construction state."
Here are the semantics unveiled:
(1) That's a lot of (our) money to spend on an inefficient project that ONLY lasts 25 - 30 years. (2) If they remove the project when promised, where will we get that energy from then? (3) If they are going to remove it, then why do we need it? (4) The purported restoration of this area in question is misleading. No one can predict the future.
Aesthetics:
Scholars in the field define aesthetics as "critical reflection on art, culture and nature." Our aesthetics will suffer greatly and change many peoples' view, for some, the rest of their life.
"Wind farm 'Trojan horse' where aesthetics concerned: 'Aesthetics is the study of the experience of sensory and emotional-sensory values. When objecting to wind farms on Backbone and Meadow Mountains, we do not question the beauty of wind farms; we object to their ruinous effect on the aesthetic, primarily visual, resources of the area. The population and the visitors of this area would not praise it more for the 'green power' installations; they would lament the irreversible loss of scenic, rural, pastoral environments.
To this change of the lay of the land, construction vehicles...with loaded weights of up to 90 tons, would roll over small State roads, newly hewn dirt trails and ramps, accessing each of the locations. Delivery for each wind turbine may require about eight tractor trailer loads. There will the penetrating noise of the revolving blades, vibration, with bird kill, and other nuisances...
Scenery or aesthetics management is a key element of any planning process that is committed to integrating human values into ecosystem management. The proposed wind farms do not fit into this process because they would bring green energy only in an environmentally destructive form. The wind farms would be the proverbial Trojan horse: Masqueraded as a green energy source, they would bring esthetic and environmental destruction." (January 6, 2008 by Stephan Dollinger in Cumberland Times-News)
Environmental:
Wind Turbines are NOT GREEN!
"Burning coal provides more than half, atomic fission more than a fifth, and burning natural gas about a sixth of our electricity. All of these have serious environmental and geopolitical shortcomings that we do indeed need to reduce. Unfortunately, wind turbines can't replace them -- or even reduce their use or slow their growth. Because of the way the electric grid works, constantly matching supply with demand to avoid dips and surges of power, the variable production of wind turbines is treated as part of the demand side of the equation. A base level of power is provided from large plants, and other plants are kept burning to be able to provide the maximum likely power (peak load) needed as it varies through the day. As demand drops, those plants are diverted from power generation, and as demand rises they are brought back on to resume generating the needed power. These plants burn fuel whether or not they are producing electricity. In other words, these peak load plants must continue burning fuel when demand falls or wind production rises, because either trend may reverse at any time. Because they are out of the control of the grid's dispatchers, just like user demand, the wind turbines' only effect is to bring the spinning standby plants in and out of production. But, again, the plants continue to burn their fuel. And the additional fluctuations of wind power add to the cost and inefficiency of that burning. A further irony is that because an increase in wind power capacity is seen on the grid as an increase in demand fluctuation, it requires dedication of other grid capacity to cover it. Rather than reduce, then, wind power may actually increase the use of other fuels." (Source: http://www.aweo.org/faq.html)
Potential Environmental Impacts:
The Lead Agencies have determined that this project could result in significant environmental impacts and/or have a significant impact on the quality of the human environment. These are some of the environmental considerations as potential significant effects of the project:
Air Quality for (7) months if the project is completed on time., biological resources, cultural resources, cumulative impacts, hydrology/water quality, visual resources, geology/soil erosion.
Also road construction traffic via Johnson road is expected to peak at approximately 350 one way trips per day during the construction period.
Construction will include excavation, rock drilling, explosives, trenching, concrete batching, concrete plants and heavy equipment, lift cranes and trucks.
In closing, please abort the proposed Granite Mountain Wind Energy Project in Apple Valley, California . The proposed Granite Mountain Wind Energy Project is a waste of your and my tax dollars. It will turn away visitors. It will take public land from the public and give it to private companies. It will threaten and displace wildlife, including endangered species. It would impact the value of my family's home. It will ruin our view and we will lose more recreational access.
We need to allow nuclear power plants, drill for oil, mine coal, tap into natural gas resources and refine already proven technology and cost effectiveness. Let us use our natural resources.
Sign the Petition to oppose!
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/granitemountain/
Thank you for your attention to the this important matter,
Best,
Maxwell *******
Wind Energy- "It's NOT like riding a bike and leaving the car in the driveway .... Wind energy on the grid is more like riding a bike and having someone follow you in the car in case you get tired."
— Eric Rosenbloom, Vt.
I sent this letter today and wanted to share it with you. BTW this would be a good time to send the petition to Brad Mitzelfelt and Carrie Hyke, Sarah. Their emails are in the Cc. 5/5/08 was supposed to be the deadline for public comments, but I found out from the county supervisors office we can send comments,letters,or emails until they vote, Enjoy!
Best, Max7
County Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt
supervisormitzelfelt@sbcounty.gov
P.O. Box 1463
Victorville, CA 92393
Cc BLM Principal Planner Carrie Hyke chyke@lusd.sbcounty.gov, BLM Field Manager Roxie Trost roxie_trost@cablm.gov, BLM Environmental Coordinator Edy Sheehafer eseehafe@blm.gov, Analyst for Brad Mitzelfelt Andrew Silva asilva@sbcounty.gov, Town of Apple Valley Administrative Analyst Linda Mayfeild lmayfield@applevalley.org, Town of Apple Valley Mayor Timothy Jasper, Town of Apple Valley Mayor Pro-Tempore Bob Sagona, Town of Apple Valley Council Member Peter Allen, Town of Apple Valley Council Member Scott Nassif, Town of Apple Valley Council Member Rick Roelle, Town of Apple Valley Town Manager Jim Cox, Town of Apple Valley Deputy Town Manager Patty Shady, Town of Apple Valley General Plan Advisory Committee Ian Bryant, Daily Press Staff Writer Tatania Prophet tprophet@vvdailypress.com, Daily Press Editor Don Holland dholland@vvdailypress.com, Daily Press Reporter Brooke Edwards bedwards@vvdailypress.com, President George W. Bush comments@whitehouse.gov, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Senator Barbara Boxer, Senator Dianne Feinstein
RE: GRANITE MOUNTAIN WIND ENERGY PROJECT / APPLE VALLEY, CALIFORNIA
Dear Supervisor Mitzelfelt,
I write in opposition to the GRANITE MOUNTAIN WIND ENERGY PROJECT as it would impact the value of my family's home, ruin our million dollar view, threaten wildlife, and result on the loss of recreational access.
Land:
The High Desert Renewable Energy Campaign, in response to several state statutes and federal policies, believes San Bernardino County's vast acreage of what they call "Undeveloped land"- what I call BLM Public land- provides considerable opportunity for renewable energy. Their pending plan includes the right of way to over 290,000 acres of BLM land! The Granite Mountain Wind Energy Project will be the some of the first 80 acres you will not have access to anymore; they will take our lands.
I am also concerned about the impact that construction, traffic, and visual pollution, i.e. over head transmission lines, and twenty eight 415 ft. high, bright white wind turbines, with flashing strobe lights, will have on our communities.
This is our public land that we would give away. The project will set a precedence that we do not care about our access to our land! This is only the beginning; if we don't stand up now there are hundreds of other similar shelved projects waiting for clearance that will potentially effect recreational/ educational enrichment. For those who like to hike, dirt bike, ATV, explore, off road, rock hound, site see,etc., BLM lands will be FOREVER changed, ruined, and unavailable. You have a responsibility to place public need first. Keep public land out of private hands!
Home Value:
In the past year and a half, I was married, we bought our first home in Apple Valley, and had our first child, a beautiful baby girl. Because of the country's current recession "type" conditions and plummeting real estate market, my one year old home purchase, according to the assessors office has lost over forty thousand dollars in value. Sure the economy will bounce back some time in the next year or two as will the real estate market, however, the Granite Mountain Wind Energy Project will not add value to my home!
Twenty eight, 415 Ft. high wind turbines will be visible to many Apple Valley and Lucerne Valley residents. Deteriorating road conditions, noise, strobing lights, property devaluation, disturbance of wildlife, are just a few of the issues we are concerned with. In an already rapidly declining real estate market, one might consider that the projected impact of a highly visible wind farm would have a additional negative effect.
"Do wind turbines affect property values?
A survey of property assessors in the UK found that a nearby wind power facility lowers property values by up to 15% a year for two years, after which the effect starts to level out. In the US, neighboring residences are often bought by the wind power company, which then rents them to people who agree not complain about the noises and vibration. , it must be remembered that in most places,values property values typically increase steadily. So any slowing down of that normal rise because of the construction of wind power facilities is in fact a loss of value.
Common sense says that given two otherwise identical properties, the one that is not next to an industrial wind power facility or whose view does not include such a facility is likely to be considered more valuable. " (Source: http://www.wind-watch.org/faq-economics.php)
The Town of Apple Valley has declared that "we want to be know as the 'Beverly Hills' of the High Desert Communities." Beverly Hills would never allow this project.
Money:
The private Granite Wind LLC / RENEWergy LLC will profit from our irresponsibly allocated tax dollars. Because of incredible tax advantages, huge corporations have invested heavily in wind power. There are no tax advantages for Apple Valley denizens.
"Since the wind is free, will wind power reduce my electric bill?
The wind is free, but the turbines and their maintenance aren't, not to mention the transmission infrastructure that must be overbuilt to support them. Subsidies are designed to keep the price competitive with other sources but not lower. And if the price is indeed lower, as with all of our energy it's because more of your taxes are going to the wind power companies." (Source: http://www.wind-watch.org/faq-economics.php)
Efficiency:
Wind energy is not efficient. If the wind does not blow, the wind mills do not produce power. Replacing your light bulbs or reducing hot water use equals the amount in saved energy than the proposed project could produce. The power that the wind mills generate at peak will be less than 1% of needed power; the power goes on the Southern California grid and does not directly benefit the citizens of the Town of Apple Valley.
"Why then do utilities generally support wind as a renewable power source?
Actually, they don’t. In Japan, as reported by Asahi Shinbunon May 18, 2005, utilities severely limit the amount of wind power on their systems, because... 'introducing too much of the electricity, whose supply can fluctuate wildly, can cause problems for utilities’ power grids. ... If there is no wind, the utilities must rely entirely on other facilities." (Source-National Wind Watch-and Vermonters with Vision)
The windmills slated for operation in Apple Valley's Granite Mountains is reported to have "a lifetime of 25 to 30 years, after which it will be decommissioned, removed, and the area will be restored to its pre-construction state."
Here are the semantics unveiled:
(1) That's a lot of (our) money to spend on an inefficient project that ONLY lasts 25 - 30 years. (2) If they remove the project when promised, where will we get that energy from then? (3) If they are going to remove it, then why do we need it? (4) The purported restoration of this area in question is misleading. No one can predict the future.
Aesthetics:
Scholars in the field define aesthetics as "critical reflection on art, culture and nature." Our aesthetics will suffer greatly and change many peoples' view, for some, the rest of their life.
"Wind farm 'Trojan horse' where aesthetics concerned: 'Aesthetics is the study of the experience of sensory and emotional-sensory values. When objecting to wind farms on Backbone and Meadow Mountains, we do not question the beauty of wind farms; we object to their ruinous effect on the aesthetic, primarily visual, resources of the area. The population and the visitors of this area would not praise it more for the 'green power' installations; they would lament the irreversible loss of scenic, rural, pastoral environments.
To this change of the lay of the land, construction vehicles...with loaded weights of up to 90 tons, would roll over small State roads, newly hewn dirt trails and ramps, accessing each of the locations. Delivery for each wind turbine may require about eight tractor trailer loads. There will the penetrating noise of the revolving blades, vibration, with bird kill, and other nuisances...
Scenery or aesthetics management is a key element of any planning process that is committed to integrating human values into ecosystem management. The proposed wind farms do not fit into this process because they would bring green energy only in an environmentally destructive form. The wind farms would be the proverbial Trojan horse: Masqueraded as a green energy source, they would bring esthetic and environmental destruction." (January 6, 2008 by Stephan Dollinger in Cumberland Times-News)
Environmental:
Wind Turbines are NOT GREEN!
"Burning coal provides more than half, atomic fission more than a fifth, and burning natural gas about a sixth of our electricity. All of these have serious environmental and geopolitical shortcomings that we do indeed need to reduce. Unfortunately, wind turbines can't replace them -- or even reduce their use or slow their growth. Because of the way the electric grid works, constantly matching supply with demand to avoid dips and surges of power, the variable production of wind turbines is treated as part of the demand side of the equation. A base level of power is provided from large plants, and other plants are kept burning to be able to provide the maximum likely power (peak load) needed as it varies through the day. As demand drops, those plants are diverted from power generation, and as demand rises they are brought back on to resume generating the needed power. These plants burn fuel whether or not they are producing electricity. In other words, these peak load plants must continue burning fuel when demand falls or wind production rises, because either trend may reverse at any time. Because they are out of the control of the grid's dispatchers, just like user demand, the wind turbines' only effect is to bring the spinning standby plants in and out of production. But, again, the plants continue to burn their fuel. And the additional fluctuations of wind power add to the cost and inefficiency of that burning. A further irony is that because an increase in wind power capacity is seen on the grid as an increase in demand fluctuation, it requires dedication of other grid capacity to cover it. Rather than reduce, then, wind power may actually increase the use of other fuels." (Source: http://www.aweo.org/faq.html)
Potential Environmental Impacts:
The Lead Agencies have determined that this project could result in significant environmental impacts and/or have a significant impact on the quality of the human environment. These are some of the environmental considerations as potential significant effects of the project:
Air Quality for (7) months if the project is completed on time., biological resources, cultural resources, cumulative impacts, hydrology/water quality, visual resources, geology/soil erosion.
Also road construction traffic via Johnson road is expected to peak at approximately 350 one way trips per day during the construction period.
Construction will include excavation, rock drilling, explosives, trenching, concrete batching, concrete plants and heavy equipment, lift cranes and trucks.
In closing, please abort the proposed Granite Mountain Wind Energy Project in Apple Valley, California . The proposed Granite Mountain Wind Energy Project is a waste of your and my tax dollars. It will turn away visitors. It will take public land from the public and give it to private companies. It will threaten and displace wildlife, including endangered species. It would impact the value of my family's home. It will ruin our view and we will lose more recreational access.
We need to allow nuclear power plants, drill for oil, mine coal, tap into natural gas resources and refine already proven technology and cost effectiveness. Let us use our natural resources.
Sign the Petition to oppose!
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/granitemountain/
Thank you for your attention to the this important matter,
Best,
Maxwell *******
Wind Energy- "It's NOT like riding a bike and leaving the car in the driveway .... Wind energy on the grid is more like riding a bike and having someone follow you in the car in case you get tired."
— Eric Rosenbloom, Vt.
Comment