Sierra Club dead wrong on impact of onshore wind turbines

You owe the good people of Union Beach and its neighboring towns a sincere apology. On Monday, June 20 at the Senate Environment and Energy Committee discussion of S2374 — the bill that would mandate a 2,000-foot setback for industrial wind turbines from homes — you stated the following, “If you go onto their website (www.noturbine.com) you’ll see that the folks in Union Beach have taken a very extreme position on many issues including the environment. They called The Sierra Club a front for General Electric even though we’ve sued General Electric, I don’t know, two dozen times. Ah, they have attacked some of our members and threatened them.” For the record, the attendees from Union Beach, including myself, never threatened anyone at any time. And if “attacking” means myself and others were very critical of you or Dennis Anderson in the comments sections of the Asbury Park Press (or any other website) whenever one of you write an opinion piece on wind energy or a related topic, so be it. You consider that an “attack.” You’re a public figure, it’s a free press and there’s free speech, and you have “attacked” us too. For the record, there never has been anything written on noturbine.com critical of The Sierra Club. Also for the record, I applaud much of the work Sierra has done over the years, but you are dead wrong on the impact of onshore industrial wind turbines on local communities.

You also mentioned Beach Haven in your testimony. I’ll assume you misspoke; the town you referred to is Ocean Gate. You said “What you’re doing in this bill is preventing Beach Haven (Ocean Gate) which is a coastal town that has one windmill that’s been operating for over a year, they’re building another windmill, there are no complaints in that town, from being able to have their second windmill.” Mr. Tittle, thiswas a completely inaccurate statement. The people living close to the wind turbine there all have very serious complaints: http://noturbine.com/images/Ocean%20Gate.htm

I hope you see fit to publicly apologize for your slander to the people of Union Beach and Ocean Gate. It has further damaged your credibility in these parts.

Bill Heller www.noturbine.com Union Beach