View from top of wind turbines in Fairhaven, MA (Peter Pereira / SouthCoastToday.com)
There’s a new victim of Fairhaven’s elected officials since their decision to let wind hypochondriacs call the shots: Democracy. As those officials have felt more heat from ordinary clean energy-supporting citizens, they’ve started abusing open meeting laws, excluding the public and going into private sessions on a regular basis.
It would be one thing if those meetings were productive. But members of the Board of Health have been unable to come to agreement not just with Fairhaven Wind, but among themselves. Fairhaven Wind has decided to ignore a previous order to shut down the turbines at night and the editorial board of the local Standard-Times, usually neutral on the Fairhaven turbines, supports that decision:
There must be something more than turbines in the air in Fairhaven. Week after week — sometimes day by day — another development tests the limits of ineptitude and folly. […]
As it is, Fairhaven Wind has opted for “let ’em spin.” How can they be faulted? The Department of Environmental Protection found [noise] violations only when the wind blows from the northwest and northeast and only in winter, never in July or August.
With all due respect to those reporting ill effects from the spinning blades, this is giving us a headache, too.
Complaints about the turbines have reportedly disappeared since the Board of Health “solved” the problem by ordering the turbines shut down at night. But if wind turbines really do cause all the problems that “wind turbine syndrome” advocates claim – headaches, nausea, herpes – wouldn’t people still be getting sick during the day? I guess this placebo is not only fast-acting, but provides 24 hour relief!
Also at risk of disappearing if the overnight shutdown continues: At least $50,000 in annual revenue for the town. Show your support for clean energy by liking the Friends of Fairhaven Wind page on Facebook.
Cross-posted from The Green Miles
One of the confounding problems of pharmacology has always been the efficacy of placebos.