We have just received some very sad news. Our friend Penny Malesky passed away Monday from complications with a recent surgery.
Throughout this prolonged, three-year fight I have met many fine people and have made many friends. I am proud to say Penny was both.
It was a great pleasure to have worked with her over this past year. She was instrumental in our efforts to pass the Essex Township police ordinance. Just when we were all getting worn down from the endless meetings, Penny, along with others, showed up with so much energy. She took it upon herself to make copies of DVDs and go door-to-door to pass them out to her neighbors and encourage them to come to the township meetings. She also pushed the township board to have a special meeting where Rick James was a featured speaker. While she didn't accomplish this alone, her role was pivotal.
Without her efforts to pick up the cause and run with it, we would not have the Essex Township police ordinance and, quite possibly, we may have failed in Bengal Township as well.
I thank God she was on our side. I hope He has a very special place for her.
Ken Wieber
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Wind Farms Get Pass on Eagle Deaths
This is a depressing but interesting article from the AP: Wind Farms Get Pass on Eagle Deaths
Some excerpts:
More than 573,000 birds are killed by the country's wind farms each year, including 83,000 hunting birds such as hawks, falcons and eagles, according to an estimate published in March in the peer-reviewed Wildlife Society Bulletin.
Getting precise figures is impossible because many companies aren't required to disclose how many birds they kill. And when they do, experts say, the data can be unreliable.
...
The Obama administration has refused to accept that cost when the fossil-fuel industry is to blame. The BP oil company was fined $100 million for killing and harming migratory birds during the 2010 Gulf oil spill. And PacifiCorp, which operates coal plants in Wyoming, paid more than $10.5 million in 2009 for electrocuting 232 eagles along power lines and at its substations.
But PacifiCorp also operates wind farms in the state, where at least 20 eagles have been found dead in recent years, according to corporate surveys submitted to the federal government and obtained by The Associated Press. They've neither been fined nor prosecuted.
...
"What it boils down to is this: If you electrocute an eagle, that is bad, but if you chop it to pieces, that is OK," said Tim Eicher, a former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service enforcement agent based in Cody, who helped prosecute the PacifiCorp power line case.
...
Some excerpts:
More than 573,000 birds are killed by the country's wind farms each year, including 83,000 hunting birds such as hawks, falcons and eagles, according to an estimate published in March in the peer-reviewed Wildlife Society Bulletin.
Getting precise figures is impossible because many companies aren't required to disclose how many birds they kill. And when they do, experts say, the data can be unreliable.
...
The Obama administration has refused to accept that cost when the fossil-fuel industry is to blame. The BP oil company was fined $100 million for killing and harming migratory birds during the 2010 Gulf oil spill. And PacifiCorp, which operates coal plants in Wyoming, paid more than $10.5 million in 2009 for electrocuting 232 eagles along power lines and at its substations.
But PacifiCorp also operates wind farms in the state, where at least 20 eagles have been found dead in recent years, according to corporate surveys submitted to the federal government and obtained by The Associated Press. They've neither been fined nor prosecuted.
...
"What it boils down to is this: If you electrocute an eagle, that is bad, but if you chop it to pieces, that is OK," said Tim Eicher, a former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service enforcement agent based in Cody, who helped prosecute the PacifiCorp power line case.
...
The rehabilitation coordinator for the Rocky Mountain Raptor Program, Michael Tincher, said he euthanized two golden eagles found starving and near death near wind farms. Both had injuries he'd never seen before: One of their wings appeared to be twisted off.
"There is nothing in the evolution of eagles that would come near to describing a wind turbine. There has never been an opportunity to adapt to that sort of threat," said Grainger Hunt, an eagle expert who researches the U.S. wind-power industry's deadliest location, a northern California area known as Altamont Pass. Wind farms built there decades ago kill more than 60 per year.
Friday, May 10, 2013
Video interview
This is Kevon Martis' extended interview with NBC25’s Brett Dickie regarding wind energy issues in Michigan:
Kevon Martis interview
You can also see the news article and original segment:
Special Report: Controversy in the Wind
Kevon Martis interview
You can also see the news article and original segment:
Special Report: Controversy in the Wind
Letter from Cary Shineldecker
This letter was sent to the Mason County Commissioners and Planning Commission Members:
Today May 7, 2013 – Turbine #14 paused at approximately 6:54 a.m. just before flicker impacted our residence.
As I sat eating my breakfast enjoying the sunrise, I watched as the sun rose into the path of the turbine.
I could watch the shadows moving closer to our home from the south and into the edge of our yard.
Just before the shadow flicker hit our home, the turbine was paused.
Since 8/22/2012 I have been insisting that our home will be over the limit set by Mason County Zoning.
Since the turbines began commercial operation on Thanksgiving day, I have had to make notes, keep records, video, file complaints and live with the impacts from Consumers Energy’s ill-designed flicker detection system. I have also had to deal with the rhetoric and denials from Consumers Energy and their lack of responsiveness to these impacts. I have been bad mouthed in the public from people who do not understand what it is to unwillingly be sacrificed for someone else’s FOR PROFIT business.
I have sacrificed countless hours to document and report these impacts and ordinance violations. While each person I interface with regarding this issue is being paid and makes a living dealing with this, I have lost time, energy, and considerable wages to perform operational compliance testing which Mason County and Consumers Energy has not done, nor had intended to do.
As I write this letter of correspondence this morning regarding this issue, I am already again late for work, yet another morning, thus sacrificing income.
What an unnecessary waste of time, energy, and life for me. I cannot express what has been lost in our lives because of this project. Sleepless nights, stress, loss of enjoyment of our home and property, total loss of enjoyment of life at many times, health impacts, loss of friendships and neighbor relations, etc.
This project not only has negatively impacted me in a physical sense but a psychological sense that will now be with me for the rest of my life. Even when we are able to leave this house, that used to be our home, we will carry the distrust for those involved and those that believe sacrificing our lives for someone else's profit was and is justifiable.
I now hope and pray that someday, each one of you has the chance to experience this sense of loss that comes with having someone else take your home from you.
I know many of you are faithful followers. Please take time to pause and pray for yourselves and those you impact with the decisions you make.
Very Sincerely,
Cary Shineldecker
Today May 7, 2013 – Turbine #14 paused at approximately 6:54 a.m. just before flicker impacted our residence.
As I sat eating my breakfast enjoying the sunrise, I watched as the sun rose into the path of the turbine.
I could watch the shadows moving closer to our home from the south and into the edge of our yard.
Just before the shadow flicker hit our home, the turbine was paused.
Since 8/22/2012 I have been insisting that our home will be over the limit set by Mason County Zoning.
Since the turbines began commercial operation on Thanksgiving day, I have had to make notes, keep records, video, file complaints and live with the impacts from Consumers Energy’s ill-designed flicker detection system. I have also had to deal with the rhetoric and denials from Consumers Energy and their lack of responsiveness to these impacts. I have been bad mouthed in the public from people who do not understand what it is to unwillingly be sacrificed for someone else’s FOR PROFIT business.
I have sacrificed countless hours to document and report these impacts and ordinance violations. While each person I interface with regarding this issue is being paid and makes a living dealing with this, I have lost time, energy, and considerable wages to perform operational compliance testing which Mason County and Consumers Energy has not done, nor had intended to do.
As I write this letter of correspondence this morning regarding this issue, I am already again late for work, yet another morning, thus sacrificing income.
What an unnecessary waste of time, energy, and life for me. I cannot express what has been lost in our lives because of this project. Sleepless nights, stress, loss of enjoyment of our home and property, total loss of enjoyment of life at many times, health impacts, loss of friendships and neighbor relations, etc.
This project not only has negatively impacted me in a physical sense but a psychological sense that will now be with me for the rest of my life. Even when we are able to leave this house, that used to be our home, we will carry the distrust for those involved and those that believe sacrificing our lives for someone else's profit was and is justifiable.
I now hope and pray that someday, each one of you has the chance to experience this sense of loss that comes with having someone else take your home from you.
I know many of you are faithful followers. Please take time to pause and pray for yourselves and those you impact with the decisions you make.
Very Sincerely,
Cary Shineldecker
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