OPINION:
Pioneer Green Energy seems determined to site industrial wind projects in ecologically sensitive areas with low wind resources (“Giant wind farm could deal the Chesapeake Bay a heavy blow,” Web, Sept. 2). Four projects proposed in three states have one thing in common; namely, rare, threatened or endangered and protected wildlife.
According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Pioneer Green’s Great Bay Wind Center could kill up to 20 bald eagles annually. While they claim to have done three years of eagle study, no data has been released for public scrutiny. The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuarine system in the contiguous United States and is at the eastern end of the Atlantic migratory flyway.
Siting a wind project with 690-foot-tall turbines in a poor-wind-resource area located within 10 miles of 30 bald eagle nests is unprecedented and makes zero sense. These turbines could easily be placed in an area that has wind and would kill no eagles.
Despite local outcry, Somerset County officials seem willing to sacrifice the wildlife and environment for the windfall Pioneer Green is promising. The Great Bay Wind project guarantees maximum carnage for minimum energy.
JEFF TRUITT
Marion Station, Md.
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