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View out Judge Hal Graham’s window (Cohocton, NY), by Jason Cox, The Corning NY Leader

—Calvin Luther Martin, PhD

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The following is based on a NY Times editorial (5/31/09) calling the tobacco companies “A Rogue Industry.”  The similarities between Big Tobacco and Big Wind are striking, especially the fraud and systematic deceit of both industries where human health is concerned.  

In the editorial, below, I simply lifted phrases and sentences from the Times editorial and plugged in “wind industry” for “tobacco industry.”

It is becoming increasingly evident that wind energy companies have engaged in deceitful and harmful behavior for many years, and cannot be trusted to reform on their own. Regulatory oversight is essential.

In particular, studies by clinicians have laid out in painstaking detail how the wind companies made false statements and suppressed evidence to deny or play down the adverse health effects of wind turbines.  Wind developers routinely manipulate noise (dB) reports by ignoring or denying turbine low frequency noise, they have falsely denied their turbines cause illness, and falsely represent that industry-sponsored setbacks are safe. 

In short, wind energy companies are guilty of racketeering and fraud as part of a prolonged campaign to deceive the public.  Anyone who objectively examines the wind energy industry cannot fail to be impressed by the volumes of evidence showing countless examples of deliberately false statements.

Americans now have fair warning, if they need any more, that this is a rogue industry. It can’t be trusted to behave responsibly or even adhere to agreements it has signed. It is time for the federal government to do its job—protect its citizens by regulating runaway Big Wind.