Letters to the Editor
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
‘Tilting at Windmills’
The article on industrial wind turbines focuses mostly on scenic vistas, while ignoring the health and safety issues for humans and wildlife associated with the turbines, as well as the question of cost-benefit [Gary Shapiro, “Tilting at Windmills,” October 25, 2006].
Industrial wind turbines are a new technology and, unlike wind factories in the Western states, the ones being built and proposed for New York State are being sited in rural residential areas.
The state is relying on the development companies to do all the necessary noise and blade throw studies, the bird and bat mortality studies and the tests to determine the impact on well water. This doesn’t make a whole lot of sense when you realize that the closer the turbines are to people’s homes, the more turbines there can be and the more money can be made by the companies.
Groups that are normally concerned with the environment are so eager to see renewable energy plants built that they are ignoring the negatives associated with industrial wind turbines, including the cost-benefit. Turbines are proposed for areas where the wind conditions are unproven, and the wind companies refuse to divulge the results of their meteorological tests. Due to its intermittency, wind is unreliable, and this has been shown by none other than GE Research in a study done for New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.
It would be sad to destroy the most beautiful areas of New York State by placing thousands of 400 foot industrial wind turbines along the ridgetops, but it is even worse to create new problems while air pollution increases and green window dressing is offered in place of serious plans for renewable energy.
RUTH MATILSKY
Highland Park, N.J.
‘To the Editor’
A Shakespearean thought (from Sonnet 130) about your newspaper: “My mistress’s eyes are nothing like The Sun.”
LOUIS PHILLIPS
Professor of Humanities School of Visual Arts
New York, N.Y.
‘To the Editor’
In a body of 535 people there’s bound to be a bit of aberrant behavior directed toward young people. Let’s do the unthinkable — disband the beguiling teenage pages, and create a new messenger corps of, say, 60-year-old retirees, who probably will not appeal to congressional voyeurs.
PAUL KAST
Massapequa, N.Y.
Please address letters intended for publication to the Editor of The New York Sun. Letters may be sent by e-mail to editor@nysun.com, by facsimile to 212-608-7348, or post to 105 Chambers Street, New York City 10007. Please include a return address and daytime telephone number. Letters may be edited.
