|
Jul 10 - McClatchy-Tribune Business News Formerly Knight
Ridder/Tribune Business News - Mark Harrington Newsday, Melville,
N.Y.
As federal officials convene the first public meetings here today and tomorrow to study the impact of proposed wind turbines off the South Shore, the short and turbulent history of gatherings on the topic portends a festival of spirited debate. The Long Island Power Authority and its partner, FPL Energy, propose erecting 40 turbines, each rising more than 400 feet above the water, in eight square miles of ocean 3 1/2 to 5 miles off the coast from Jones Beach to Robert Moses State Park. (LIPA and FPL will fund the environmental statement.) Pros and cons Opponents say the relatively small amount of energy (140 megawatts) from the turbines would represent a fraction of the Island's current 6,100 megawatt availability, would cost more than standard energy and wouldn't be worth risking any damage to the environment and ocean views. Proponents say the wind park is a necessary beginning to reduce dependence on foreign oil and greenhouse gases that lead to global warming. "It represents the greatest hope for Long Island and the United States of America for reducing oil dependence from OPEC," LIPA chairman Richard Kessel said. But "the beach is a stage, and the sea is a performance," countered Thomas Vanderberg, who chairs the legal committee for Save Jones Beach, a group that opposes the project. "Places like this [off the South Shore] should be, per se, off-limits." Vanderberg made his comments at the first Minerals Management meeting in May, a public hearing held to address only the parameters for future offshore energy projects excluding LIPA's. But that didn't stop critics and supporters wearing windmill lapel pins from using their allotted three minutes before the agency to praise the wind park or blast it and its fast-track approval over other such projects. Fast-track approval LIPA received expedited approval by lobbying for an exception in an energy bill that Congress passed last year. The exception means LIPA won't have to wait for the Minerals Management Service's broad environmental guidelines to be formalized before it can begin its own impact study -- giving it an advantage of up to 18 months over other new projects. "No one should get a free pass and be granted fast-track status on your watch," said one wind-farm opponent. But Gordian Raacke, a long-time wind- and solar-power advocate at the nonprofit group Renewable Energy Long Island, said signs of worsening effects of global warming leave little choice for those who oppose the projects on purely aesthetic grounds. "We must overcome parochial, not-in-my-backyard public attitudes," said Raacke, whose organization receives a third of its funding, or $128,516.74, from a contract with KeySpan to implement and develop LIPA's Solar Pioneer Program. Raacke, who frequently appears with LIPA in public forums supporting wind power, said the contract with LIPA doesn't influence his support of a wind project. (Another wind-power proponent, the Long Island Neighborhood Network, which also makes frequent appearances with LIPA, receives $40,000 a year in a contract with KeySpan as part of the utility's Clean Energy Leadership Task Force. The contract "doesn't deal with wind energy," said the group's executive director, Neil Lewis.) Minerals Management, in its release announcing this week's meetings, said it will consider LIPA's proposal as well as the "no-action" alternative. Land option While both sides slug it out, one expert who favors wind-turbine energy but has steered clear of the offshore debate, Daniel Karpen of Huntington, a consulting engineer and inventor, believes the windmills could just as easily be strategically placed on land. Karpen said he has told top KeySpan officials they should be installing wind turbines at power plant sites. "They already have the land, and the permits required would be minimal," he said. "Plus, this work could be done immediately" and be more simply connected to the grid. Karpen also notes that new, more powerful wind turbines from a Danish manufacturer would allow LIPA to get the same energy from nine fewer units than the 40 planned. Kessel said contractor FPL hasn't yet decided on the manufacturer, though he does expect a power purchase agreement to be finalized with FPL soon. He expects permits could be granted next year, and the project could be completed by the summer of 2008 -- assuming it's approved. And if it's not? "I think it would have major ramifications for national energy policy," Kessel said, adding he'd be surprised if that happened. "I don't think there are any significant environmental or regulatory issues that would prevent this project from getting permitted and licensed." Meeting schedule Public meetings are scheduled today and tomorrow on LIPA's proposal to build 40 wind turbines 3 1/2 to 5 miles off the South Shore, from Jones Beach to Robert Moses State Park: TODAY 7 p.m., West Babylon High School Performing Arts Center, 200 Great East Neck Rd., West Babylon TOMORROW 7 p.m., Massapequa High School (auditorium), 2925 Merrick Rd., Massapequa. |
New debate on turbines in the wind