National Wind Watch supports European call for wind energy moratorium

European Platform Against Windfarms (EPAW) also calls for a study of wind power's record to determine its true benefits, costs, and impacts.

.......an edited extract from a NWW press release, Jan 09, is shown below

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Rowe, Mass., Jan. 15, 2009

On the morning of October 4, 2008, several groups from France and other European countries agreed to form the European Platform Against Windfarms (EPAW).

On November 24, EPAW publicized a letter [1] that they will send to the Commissioners of the European Union and Members of the European Parliament.

The letter calls for an immediate moratorium on wind energy projects throughout the E.U. and independent study of wind energy to assess its carbon savings and its economic, social, and environmental impacts.

National Wind Watch supports this call.

We have a lot to learn from Europe, where there is a long experience with substantial presence of wind energy on the grid. The time is long overdue that regulators and planners should stop talking about what wind energy "can" do and start examining what it actually has done.

North America and the rest of the world also should heed EPAW's request for a reality check.

In December 2008, the British Wind Energy Association was forced by the Advertising Standards Authority to reduce by half its claims of how much carbon emissions might be reduced by wind energy. [2] This and other claims by the wind energy industry need to be examined by independent experts, so that energy policy is based on facts rather than sales material.

Everyone involved in promoting and supporting the spread of industrial wind needs to take a "hard look" at the facts. As Eric Rosenbloom, president of National Wind Watch, said, "If we have learned anything from the last eight years, from the collapse of Enron who helped create the modern wind industry [6] to the demise of Lehman Brothers who invested heavily in wind to avoid paying taxes [7], we cannot trust the players themselves to look out for our or the environment's interests. We need policies based on facts, not promotional materials or wishful thinking."

References
[1] http://www.epaw.org
[2] http://www.wind-watch.org/news/?p=20985
[6] Most notably, Enron invented "green tags" to sell wind energy production twice. Also see: "Enron's Ken Lay asks for Texas Gov. Bush's help in securing tax credits for wind", http://www.wind-watch.org/documents/?p=1055; "How the White House Energy Plan Benefitted Enron", http://www.wind-watch.org/documents/?p=1075
[7] http://www.wind-watch.org/news/?p=20756

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National Wind Watch is a nonprofit corporation established by campaigners from around the U.S. in 2005 to promote knowledge and raise awareness of the environmental and social impacts of industrial wind energy development. Information, analysis, and other materials are available on their web site: www.wind-watch.org.

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