Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Don't take the wind out of cleaner energy source
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Alden Hathaway
Hathaway is director of the EcoPower Program run by the Environmental Resources Trust in Washington, D.C.
I was surprised to read the letter to the editor in The Roanoke Times from Tammy Belinsky denouncing the use of wind energy as a viable energy source for Virginia ("Ecosystem needs more protection than rhetoric," Aug. 4). I am surprised, because I have had serious discussions with Dr. Matt Wasson of Appalachian Voices, an organization that she currently serves as board member.
Our discussions centered on what global climate change is doing to the Appalachians. He is greatly concerned with the loss of biodiversity and habitat in the upper elevations as temperatures rise.
In fact, a major article appeared in Appalachian Voices last year that highlighted this problem, specifically mentioning the endangered flying squirrel and the red striped salamander. I talked with Wasson about sugar maples, and he confided that they would probably cease sugar maple production in less than 50 years in the middle Appalachians.
He and I are under no delusions about what is causing this change. It is this nation's addiction to coal-fired generation. He and I agree that wind power is our best hope of turning the tide on our use of coal. But Belinsky seems to be throwing her lot in with those advocating no wind development in Virginia.
While it is true that wind turbines are killing bats and birds, we do know that in certain unforested ridge tops the problem can be minimized. This does need to be resolved. But wind turbines already kill less per megawatt hour of generation than coal.
From mountaintop removal to transportation impacts, to combustion that causes acid rain, smog and carbon emissions causing global warming, nothing is killing things faster in this world than our use of coal. Where's Belinsky's outrage against coal-fired generation? She has played right into the hands of those saying we need more coal plants.
Electricity is a zero-sum game. The more renewable generation we can put on the electric grid with zero emissions, the more coal-fired generation that will be displaced. If we slow wind development down, we speed coal development up and hasten the world's demise.
What is our environmental responsibility?
