The Berkshire International Film Festival will show Windfall, a documentary about a town where industrial wind turbines are built.
The movie is playing on Sunday, June 5, 2011 at 1:00 pm at Simon’s Rock DAC, 84 Alford Road, Great Barrington, MA 01230. Cost is $10. The link below has information about ordering tickets.
http://biffma.slated.com/2011/films/windfall_lauraisrael_biffma2011
Pam Toohey
860-240-0579, or
Toll-free: 1-800-842-1420
This article written by Colebrook residents Michael and Jennifer Truss appeared in the Register Citizen on April 23, 2011.
Story:
MICHAEL AND JENNIFER TRUSS: Facts regarding industrial wind turbines
“Facts don’t cease to exist because they are ignored.” — Aldous Huxley
Connecticut may well be headed down the precarious road of ignoring unfavorable facts concerning industrial wind turbines that, without question, exist.
For more of this story, click on or type the URL below:
http://www.registercitizen.com/articles/2011/04/23/opinion/doc4db24aa975c41660282611.txt
Michael and Jennifer Truss
86 Pinney Street
Colebrook CT
mjtruss@charter.net
A group called Save Northwest Connecticut has created an electronic petition against the BNE industrial turbine projects in Colebrook. Click below to see the petition as well as comments from those who have signed it. Please pass this on to others who might like to sign. — Thanks, Joyce
Click below to view/sign the petition.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/savenwct/
A 21ST CENTURY ‘GONE WITH THE WIND’
Alan and Shannon White
Alan and Shannon White live in Colebrook
April 8, 2011
_Perhaps to be no more than a memory, cherished only in books, a
picturesque, bucolic Connecticut town could be gone with the wind… _
Currently, Connecticut has no regulations for the siting of wind energy
power plants and without them we are an easy target for the wind
industry to market their wares. Furthermore, our Siting Council has an
approval rating of 97% regardless of public outcries. Two petitions
await a decision by this Council that ask to site six, 500-foot
industrial wind turbines less than a half mile from my mother’s home
where my family has lived for the last forty-five years. Who are the
Connecticut Siting Council and what are they charged to do? Continue reading
TO CSG MEMBERS AND FRIENDS:
The Board of the Coalition for Sound Growth (CSG) voted unanimously on 3 April to oppose the petition of BNE Energy to construct six 1.6 megawatt commercial wind turbines in Colebrook.
WHY DID IT TAKE CSG SO LONG TO MAKE THIS DECISION?
When t he CSG became aware of the wind turbine proposals for Colebrook in late 2010, a fair description of the Board sentiment was as follows;
— That we intuitively liked the idea of wind energy as an alternative energy resource.
— That we, like many others, were profoundly ignorant of the mechanics, viability, reliability and economic feasibility of wind turbines. We wanted to get it right. Continue reading
April 7, 2011
For Immediate Release:
Forum on Wind Turbines
The Berkshire-Litchfield Environmental Council (BLEC) will hold an informational forum on commercial-scale wind turbines, April 16, 2011, at the Housatonic Valley Regional High School in Falls Village, CT, from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM.
Co-sponsors include the Housatonic Valley Association, Audubon/Sharon, Housatonic Environmental Action League, Housatonic Riverkeepers, Housatonic River Initiative, the Northwest Conservation District, and Green Berkshires.
Confirmed speakers are: keynote, Albert M. Manville, II, Ph.D. Senior Wildlife Biologist, Division of Migratory Bird Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to discuss bird and bat deaths near wind turbines and current federal recommendations for tower siting/mitigation; Madga Havas, Ph.D., professor of biology, Trent University, Canada, regarding unintended environmental couplings of electromagnetic fields from wind turbines and their implications for humans and wildlife; Helen Parker, Ph.D., clinical psychologist and former supervisory faculty member of the University of Virginia Medical School, to discuss wind turbine syndrome from low frequency environmental infrasound; David McGlinchey, Senior Program Leader on Energy and Environment at the Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences in Massachusetts to discuss the larger role of wind in national energy needs; and Eleanor Tillinghast, Green Berkshires, to discuss general siting concerns. Sample planning and zoning regulations will be available, with ample time for Q&A.
Also invited are: U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal on the balance between energy independence and environmental protection; CT Attorney General George Jepsen on the need for wind turbine regulation; John Fonfara, CT Senate Co-chairman of the Energy and Technology Committee; and CT Senator Andrew Roraback and CT House Representative Roberta Willis on legislative initiatives.
Some of the issues to be addressed include: Where is wind generation most appropriate? What is the real risk/benefit ratio of wind turbines? Does that ratio change in regions with less wind? What are the adverse effects to humans and other species from turbine spinning, increased ground current, low frequency sound, vibration, and light flicker to humans and other species, especially birds and bats? Are inland/wetland habitats more vulnerable with sentinel species like turtles, amphibians and fish? What about structural failure, fire, and ice throw? Are concerns primarily one of scale? Are some windmill designs better than others? What are reasonable ways to mitigate, legislate, and anticipate such problems? And what is happening at the federal, state, and local levels?
“Other areas are far ahead of us on this,” said BLEC President, Starling W. Childs. “Connecticut is seeing applications for industrial-scale wind turbines for the first time. Everyone is for renewable energy but with fast moving structures that can top 500 feet, caution and intelligent siting become critical.”
BLEC is a 501 (c ) (3) nonprofit. Admission is $5.00 at the door, tax deductible. For more information, contact B. Blake Levitt, blakelevit@cs.com, or Starling Childs, eecostar@aol.com or visit http://www.berklitchfieldenviro.org/
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Press Contacts:
B. Blake Levitt
355 Lake Road
Warren, CT 06777
Email: blakelevit@cs.com
Phone: 860-868-7437
Speakers contact information available on request
