As a wind power proponent and safety advocate, I'm getting really aggravated by folks on BOTH sides of the debate. It's time we started looking at facts, not someone who's "never heard" (read: never bothered to research) problems on the other side of their opinion.

Wind power will NOT significantly reduce our need for foreign oil. Wind power supplies electricity and only about 2% of our national need for oil is used to produce electricity. The vast majority of it goes into our cars. Add China to the picture and this will not significantly help the war or the price of oil.

Wind power DOES reduce pollutants from coal, nuclear, and other electricity-generating plants. Yes, the coal plants need to remain active. Wind power is notoriously unreliable -- the wind comes and goes -- so existing plants have to spin in reserve, ready to kick in when the wind dies down. However, the amount of coal (fuel) they use and the amount of pollutants they emit will be reduced for that portion of the time that wind power is running. How much of a reduction we get depends on how efficient the wind turbines are, making it imperative that turbines are placed where there is the most wind.

I'm getting really tired of the "I can do what I want with my land" argument. Well then, go ahead and put up a drive-in porn theatre. We'll see how fast you get shut down. There's a saying that applies here: "Your right to swing your fist ends at my nose." Did you know that the EPA does not recommend erecting turbines near homes because of adverse health effects including nausea, migraines and vertigo? When the town planning boards have determined that erecting turbines will not adversely affect your neighbors, go right ahead and lease. Until that time, we need to keep talking and researching. The question of what constitutes "near" is still up in the air.

Talking about your beliefs without having done any research is just muddying the issue. Let's start talking about efficiency of these turbines -- maximum bang for the buck. Let's start talking about safety of these turbines -- how close can they really be? Let's start behaving like a community -- not liege-lord landowners trying to put down the rest of the town. It would be easy if wind power were the answer to all our energy problems. It would be easy if they randomly sucked people off the ground and sliced them to ribbons -- at least we'd have an answer. Let's stop elevating our rhetoric to the point where it becomes fairy tale and get down to real facts. Then and only then can we make decisions about what's best for our nation, our state, our neighbors, and ourselves.

Loy Gross
East Bethany