Wind Turbine Troubles By Dr. Jimmy Tragle, Part VI

Developers tend to use jobs and money to promote the turbines to local elected officials.

They make claims about the number of jobs the construction and operation of turbines will bring to communities and offer monetary promises to counties. Tucker County, W VA should stand as an example of what these promises are. Empty. During construction workers were imported as the assembly of the turbines isn’t a skill most everyone has. Monitoring of the facilities provides little more than a few low skill security jobs. I think the project in Tucker County has about 5 full timers on it.

Balanced with what is potentially lost in tourism jobs it appears to be a losing situation.

Tucker County was also promised yearly payments from the developer. Shortly after the plant was operational it was sold off to Florida Power and Light. In came the lawyers and out went the agreement. Tucker County has received a fraction of what was promised.

In addition the taxes levied by local governments tend to be very lenient for the projects. A typical generation facility will have taxes levied at a rate figured against 60% of the facility’s value. Wind plants use a figure of about 5% of value.

Coupled with potential revenue losses secondary to the placement of turbines the tax revenues for such entities have the potential to create shortfalls in state and county budgets.

The tax subsidies that are in place to make wind plants quite profitable for the industry were lobbied by Enron during the Clinton administration. Enron having its fingers in it is enough to make one suspicious of any well meaning.

I’d like to thank all who were interested enough to stick with this through the final installment. My apologies for the somewhat rough and disjointed nature this series of articles may have appeared to possess. They’re a result of cobbling them together somewhat hastily after months and months of reading what seems to be an unending supply of articles.