4 January 2005

An open letter to Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito

The voters and property owners of Pendleton County need your help. Large-scale industrial wind turbine projects are threatening property values, the future growth of tourism, and growth in the second-home/vacation-home real estate market, all of which are all dependent on the sanctity of our incomparable scenic treasures.

In the past you have often demonstrated your willingness to put what’s best for West Virginia above the calls for adherence to the Republican Party’s agenda. Here is another opportunity. These industrial wind turbine zones exist only for three reasons:

They are heavily subsidized by all taxpayers through the special tax breaks given investors in these projects such that there remains an incentive to build them even though they are a costly, inefficient and unreliable way to generate electricity. The relaxation of the time deadlines contained in the Clean Air Act of 1970 for reducing smokestack emissions from power plants enables energy providers to avoid expensive plant upgrades by streaming in only slightly less expensive wind-sourced energy. Ironically, this hurts the coal industry, because it delays the adoption of new technology that would allow more of West Virginia’s coal resources to be used. The legislatures of our neighboring states, Pennsylvania and Maryland, have used the heavy hand of government to create an arbitrary and artificial market for expensive, renewable energy inputs into the power supply, a market that would instantly disappear with a change in the law.

None of this is a solution to the energy needs of the United States. A far better solution would be legislation at the federal level that removes the tax policy incentives and loopholes, which spawn these dinosaurs-in-the-making, and encourages instead a decentralized approach with incentives for home-owner adoption of simple, proven, small-scale wind power.

The future of energy production in the United States is going to be a combination of large, coal-fired power plants, employing all of the technological advances available to reduce air pollution – expensive as they may be – and small-scale wind and solar-powered inputs from thousands upon thousands of home owners putting power back into the grid from their end. Leadership from a few far-thinking people in Congress can make this happen without going through the bogus and unnecessary step of providing corporate welfare for gigantic industrial wind projects.

I hope you would consider yourself one of those far-thinking individuals and take a leadership role in bringing renewable energy production directly to the end-users: individual home owners. Besides the advantages of using the existing infrastructure and “spinning electric meters backward, “ there would most certainly be another benefit as homeowners personally witness the impact of their energy consumption in a very direct and empowering way.

I look forward to your reply and will, with your permission, share your response with the many friends and supporters you have in Pendleton County by arranging to have your response posted on www.protectpendleton.com.

January 25, 2005

Dear Mr. Hooton:

Thank you for contacting my office with your concerns on behalf of Citizens for Responsible Wind Power. It was good to learn your views on this issue.

I understand your concern for the scenic beauty of West Virginia. Our state is a provider of energy for the rest of the nation, but our natural treasures must always be considered when new energy facilities are created.

Currently the Environmental Protection Agency, the Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Army Corps of Engineers have responsibilities for issuing permits for new wind energy facilities. Should legislation come to the floor of the House on wind power or a wind energy tax credit, you can be sure I will keep your views in mind.

16 February 2005

Dear Congresswoman Capito,

Thank you for your response to my letter. I do think you may be overworking your staff as the person assigned to generate a response (initials: a.t.) mistook me as representing Citizens for Responsible Wind Power when the letterhead and content indicated that I was speaking for a different organization, Protect Pendleton. The letter never mentioned CRWP. We may share similar goals but I think it's important to recognize that there is much more grass-roots, wide-spread opposition to these wind turbines than you or your staff may think.

If all of the money in the form of tax breaks and production credits bestowed on these private wind developers had been used to subsidize retrofitting new coal scrubber technology onto existing WV power plants, this current assault on our scenic landscape and our property values would have no possible reason to continue.

Unfortunately, facilitating legislators have allowed this supposed solution to atmospheric carbon loading to survive solely on large doses of government welfare.

I realize that the political calculus is to take note of the quantity of constituents' letters on a topic rather than their quality and I will do what I can to get others to write, but in the meantime I would hope that you give some serious consideration to this issue.

You need not reply to this letter. Perhaps staffer "a.t." might use the time saved to look at www.protectpendleton.com to see why so many of your constituents in the county are upset and concerned about the rush to install wind turbines when there are so many other actions that could be taken to reduce carbon emissions.

Sincerely,