Wind energy negative impacts overblown

Credible peer-reviewed scientific data and various government reports in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and the U.K. have thus far found no evidence that wind farms cause negative health impacts.

In the U.S. specifically, the Massachusetts Departments of Public Health and Environmental Protection recently commissioned a panel of experts to analyze “the biological plausibility or basis for health effects of turbines (noise, vibration, and flicker).”

The experts – who had backgrounds in public health, epidemiology, toxicology, neurology and sleep medicine, neuroscience, and mechanical engineering – found no evidence of health effects from wind turbines.

Additionally, wind turbines do not emit greenhouse gases, nor air pollutants such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and mercury which can cause respiratory problems, cardiovascular disease, and developmental problems in children.

Finally, regarding the effect on property values, a recent Department of Energy study titled, “The Impact of Wind Power Projects on Residential Property Values in the United States: A Multi-Site Hedonic Analysis” found, “Neither the view of wind energy facilities nor the distance of the home to those facilities was found to have any consistent, measurable, and significant effect on the selling prices of nearby homes.”

In fact, wind farm lease payments provide Wisconsin landowners with an annual benefit of $1.9 million. The fact remains that wind’s ability to generate electricity with no air pollution, no water pollution, no hazardous waste, and no mining or drilling for fuel makes it the least impactful form of energy production available to our society today, from both an environmental and human health standpoint.

Chris Long, American Wind Energy Association, http://www.awea.org/