New Bill in Congress: Jail for Installing a Wind Turbine?
From the American Wind Energy Association:
Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV) has introduced legislation that would impose devastating, excessive, and unworkable requirements for all existing and future wind projects – including small wind systems – that do not comply with as yet unwritten onerous siting standards.
This bill’s anti-wind energy section, Subtitle D of bill H.R. 2337, would have to be satisfied by all wind systems of any size to avoid, minimize, and mitigate adverse impacts on migratory birds and bats despite the fact that wind turbines cause less than 0.003% of human-caused bird mortality.
AWEA is fighting this provision and we need your voice to help defeat it. AWEA’s aim is to stop these provisions from becoming part of energy legislation that may be acted on later this year. To join the fight against this bill and for more information, see http://capwiz.com/windenergy/issues/alert/?alertid=9773201&type=CO
Subtitle D of this bill would:
• Impose imprisonment and/or a $50,000 fine for placing a wind
turbine on private property without first gaining approval from the
Director of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, regardless of whether
used for personal or commercial purposes.
• Require a review of every existing and planned wind installation and project by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS), a mandate far beyond the agency’s resources and capabilities.• Create invasive inspection requirements for private landowners and farmers with wind turbines on their property.
Rep. Rahall (D-WV) is Chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee where he exercises influence over the movement of the bill, which is scheduled for a hearing as early as June 6. West Virginia is also a coal-dominant state.
What you can do today to stop this bill:
* Contact your Representative and Senator. Please ask your Representative (House) to oppose the anti-wind Subtitle D of H.R. 2337. See http://www.awea.org/legislative/Grassroots.aspxx
* Lobbying Opportunities: Congressional Recess Next Week
The upcoming Congressional recess period may provide you with a unique opportunity to communicate your support for small wind directly with your Representative or Senator. During such a recess,
your Representative and Senators will be home in your district/state and may choose to host “town hall meetings” or other forums that are open to the public. Your Representative (House) will be in your district from May 25-27 and June 2-4; while your Senators will be home in your state from May 26 – June 3.To see if your Congressman will be featuring any such opportunities to hear public opinion, visit their Web sites, which you can locate by visiting www.congress.org.
Ron Stimmel
Small-Wind Advocate
American Wind Energy Association
A minor but beneficial side effect is to remove some of the excessive atmospheric energy caused by global warming.
Jim L. Brown
May 22, 2007
Thanks for your help getting the word out. We and others have been working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for about 3 years now to set up a formal process to review their existing guidelines for wind farms, and the first meeting has yet to be held, due to all of the legal hoops and hurdles they must deal with. Certification would be a much more complex process, and the idea of banning all new wind farm construction until a certification program is up and running is totally off the wall. It’s really a backdoor way to destroy the industry.
Regards,
Thomas O. Gray
American Wind Energy Association
http://www.awea.org
risingwind.blogspot.com
Tom Gray
May 28, 2007