Dear Sen. Helmick

I am writing to you on behalf of a number of your constituents in Pendleton County who are concerned about the adverse effects on property values and the second home/vacation home real estate market that will occur if industrial scale wind plants are built on our beautiful mountain ridges.

This threat has become more real with the creation of the newly revived Public Energy Authority under the SB 1002 reorganization plan. Although wind plants are not mentioned by name, they are obviously the intended recipients of the PEA's power to issue bonds and condemn private property. Conventional energy producers in West Virginia all have good to excellent bond ratings so they don't need public money for new projects, nor do they need the power to condemn private property since they site new facilities on their own property. But private wind developers, thwarted in their attempt to use our county commissioners to do the dirty work of taking private land for their transmission line have now raised the ante by having the state take over where the commissioners had to back down. The thinking, I imagine, is that the people of Pendleton County are no match for the muscle of the PEA. That's probably so, but I wonder how it would turn out if we had Walt Helmick in our corner.

Although the PEA is under the executive branch of government my understanding is that the legislative branch is not without the means to exert some influence over these agencies. Your mastery of the finer points and subtleties of legislative power wielding is well known and appreciated here in Pendleton County. Is it possible that the Senate finance committee during the budget approval process can craft an amendment that denies funds to the PEA and renders it useless?

I am not against wind power: I am against the wasteful use of West Virginia's public funds to support such an inefficient, private undertaking. I favor home based wind power inputs that require no infrastructure, no transmission lines, no condemnation of private property and have the added advantage of making home owners more aware of their energy usage and more inclined to conserve it.

I also favor clean coal technology. West Virginia's future is in using the most abundant natural resource it has, combined with the most advanced pollution control equipment, to produce clean and reliable energy for many years to come. Giant wind turbines are inherently wasteful, inefficient ways of producing power and can only survive with heavy taxpayer subsidies. Promoters of these wind turbines have, until recently, been able to maintain a virtual monopoly on the information available to the general public but the drawbacks and problems that are increasingly evident to the early adopters in Europe are now becoming more known in the US as well. West Virginia does not need a forest of wind turbines on its ridges to be an innovative leader in reliable energy production and Pendleton County most certainly doesn't need them if it wants to preserve its property values and the significant economic contributions made by tourism and the vacation home real estate market.

I would appreciate hearing from you and will with your permission post your reply on www.protectpendleton.com so that other concerned voters and property owners in Pendleton County can be informed of your views on this topic.

Sincerely,