Jul 22, 2010 posted by: Mari Lou-WGMD News
DE gets authority from EPA for offshore wind permitting
Delaware has been given the authority by the EPA to enforce and implement offshore wind permitting related to air quality – after adopting the federal requirements back in June. This is the first time that a state program has been delegated authority of the rule. The first action that will be subject to these regulations in Delaware – a proposed meteorological tower associated with the Blue Water Wind project.
Delaware becomes first state to receive delegation from EPA for offshore wind permitting
DOVER – Delaware has become the first state delegated authority for enforcing and implementing offshore wind permitting related to air quality as it prepares to site the country’s first offshore wind farm – continuing as a national leader in renewable and alternative energy.
The Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control was granted delegating authority this week by the Environmental Protection Agency through a statute of the federal Clean Air Act pertaining to the outer continental shelf.
The EPA delegated to DNREC the primary authority to implement and enforce the federal Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) regulations. Delaware adopted the federal requirements into 7 DE Admin Code 1150, Outer Continental Shelf Air Regulations, in June 2010. These regulations control air pollution from OCS sources by establishing that Delaware’s land-based air pollution control requirements apply to sources located on or above the outer continental shelf, which is any area within 25 miles of Delaware’s coastline.
Delaware’s delegation of the OCS regulation marks the first time that a state program has been delegated authority of the rule. Previously, only a handful of local Air Pollution Control Districts within California had been delegated authority by EPA.
The first action in Delaware that will be subject to these regulations is a proposed meteorological tower associated with the Blue Water Wind project. This meteorological tower is proposed to be constructed approximately 18 miles off the coast of Delaware’s shore. The regulation will require that any emissions that occur during its construction and operation, or during any future projects’ construction and operation, will be controlled to the same level as if those emissions occurred on land.
“Offshore wind represents an important environmental and economic opportunity for the State of Delaware,” said DNREC Secretary Collin P. O’Mara, who also serves as chairman of a Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Delaware task force on offshore wind. “By receiving delegation of federal permitting authority from EPA, we are one step closer to ensuring that the promise of offshore wind is realized in a timely fashion.”
Delaware last week hosted the BOEM task force to help coordinate and accelerate the permitting process. This week, Governors Jack Markell of Delaware and Martin O’Malley of Maryland wrote a letter to President Obama asking the federal government to partner with the two states in buying offshore wind energy. Maryland and Delaware continue to work together to expand the Blue Water Wind Mid-Atlantic Wind Farm off the coast of Rehoboth to maximize economic and manufacturing opportunities.
DNREC’s having authority for implementing and enforcing air quality permitting is essential for moving forward with offshore wind. “This action allows Delaware to more effectively respond to the permitting needs of any offshore project and associated timing for permit issuance,” said Ali Mirzakhalili, director of DNREC’s Division of Air Quality.
The Turbine Peddlers Represent Green Fraud
There is growing worldwide opposition the deadly propeller style wind turbine for good reason. There has been a corporate/government cover-up for over 25 years concerning the extreme danger they pose to birds and bats. For those that have not seen it, take a look at the YouTube video “fatal accident with vulture on a windmill”. A Griffon Vulture gets smashed out of the sky by the innocent looking blades of a propeller style wind turbine. The wind turbine in the video is spinning at just 12 rpm or about half speed. After seeing this you will understand what is coming to the local and migratory bird populations, all over the world.
Recently in the United Kingdom, a primary school, was forced to turn off their wind turbine because of birds being killed by the spinning blades. The small propeller-style wind turbine had tip speeds of 135 miles per hour and killed 14 birds in just six months. In comparison, the tens of thousands of large wind turbines installed in Europe and the United States have tip speeds of 220 miles per hour and are much more lethal. Worldwide, millions of birds are killed annually from wind turbines, but unlike the birds in the schoolyard, most of these birds drop to the ground with no witnesses.
In Canada, a recent study of bird and bat mortality at Wolfe Island’s 82-turbine wind farm found 600 birds and more than a thousand bats were killed by the windmill blades in a six-month period.
None of this should come as a surprise. Over the last 25 years in Altamont Pass, more than 2,000 golden eagles have been killed by the blades of the propeller-style wind turbine. The corrupt wind/oil industry (they are one in the same) paid experts to say it was just an aberration and that Altamont was unique. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is involved in this fraud because they deliberately looked the other way while wind farms were built in the habitat of the condor and whooping crane. They even helped write the “No Surprises” clause into federal law, which gives this industry a free pass for killing endangered species.
The most insidious impact from the use of propeller style wind turbines, is the slaughter of migratory Birds. The negative footprint from wind energy is far greater than the obvious. A perfect example is the Whooping Crane that travels 2500 miles only to be chopped up in the thousands of spinning blades along their migration route. The critically Egyptian Vulture is another migratory victim of these turbines.
Paid off experts fraudulently cite collisions with power lines as being the primary reason. This same fraudulent excuse was given for missing Condors in California. Now the condor is regularly fed at feeding stations far away from the turbines to keep them alive.
At the current rate of wind farm development, dozens of other bird species will soon face extinction from this diabolical source of energy. The truth is no bird or bat is safe around a propeller-style wind turbine.
Remember this………when the propeller style wind turbine is introduced into their habitats, it becomes the number one cause of death for rare and endangered bird species. Despite what the industry states, cats, cars, windows, buildings, etc. are not the problem. These mortality factors did not kill off the Red Kite populations that have disappeared from Germany and Italy. The prop wind turbines have killed them off.
Here is another fact, regardless of how many are built, energy from the propeller style wind turbine will NEVER even come close to solving America energy needs. Communities need to be told this before they embrace these killers.
Communities should also be told that the day is coming when far superior wind turbines, without the flawed deadly propeller design, will be implemented across the world. How long this will take depends on how long the bird/bat mortality lie is perpetuated the wind industry.
Below is factual information covered up by the wind industry for over 25 years. This came from a report put together by Ornithologists in Poland. The link for this report is on Poland’s Wind Energy web site. To my knowledge it is the only example of the true bird mortality impact ever made public by the wind Industry.
http://www.psew.pl/en/guidelines_for_assessment_of_wind_farms_impact_on_birds.htm
4. Development of wind projects is likely to cause:
a. Bird mortality caused by collisions with operating turbines and/or elements
of auxiliary infrastructure, in particular overhead power lines;
b. Decrease in population due to loss and fragmentation of habitats caused
by deterring effect of the wind turbines and/or development of
communication and energy infrastructure related to operations of the wind
turbines,
c. Disturbance to populations, in particular to short- and long – range bird
migrations (the barrier effect).
5. Mortality caused by collisions and loss of habitats are key in terms of likely
adverse effects on birds populations.
6. The extent of effects on bird population is diversified, depending mainly upon
the location of the wind turbines – from almost no or negligible effects on life
expectancy of bird population, to significant effects with significant loss of
habitats and high mortality caused by collisions.
[...] DE gets authority from EPA for offshore wind permitting. – Mari Lou, WGMD, July 22, 2010 Delaware has been given the authority by the EPA to enforce and implement offshore wind permitting related to air quality – after adopting the federal requirements back in June. This is the first time that a state program has been delegated authority of the rule. The first action that will be subject to these regulations in Delaware – a proposed meteorological tower associated with the Blue Water Wind project. Click Here [...]