environment:

Winds of change blow back

Residents of Searchlight, unlike Boulder City counterparts, staunchly oppose wind farm in community

CASSIE TOMLIN / HOME NEWS

Searchlight residents William Berg, “Shorty” Schwartz and Bonnie Schocker attend a public meeting Tuesday at a community center in the town, about 70 miles southeast of Las Vegas. The Bureau of Land Management held the meeting to discuss a proposed wind farm east of town to be operated by Duke Energy.

By Phoebe Sweet (contact)

Saturday, Jan. 31, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Boulder City residents receptive to wind farm proposal (1-30-2009)
Proposed wind farm near Searchlight worries some residents (1-28-2009)

When Duke Energy went to Boulder City to pitch a wind farm outside Searchlight, the company was greeted with a virtual love-in.

Not so in Searchlight, where residents seemed armed with pitchforks and torches.

In a freak ice storm, one Searchlight resident contended, turbines might freeze and shards of ice could fall from the blades and stab someone through the heart.

Or: Vibrations from the slow-spinning blades will disturb local canines.

And: The turbines would be too water-intensive. (That person may have confused wind turbines with water-pumping windmills.)

In Searchlight, even four meetings with Duke Energy officials didn’t calm the not-in-my-back-yard complaints of the local residents.

But 25 miles away, the reception was decidedly warmer.

One of the 40 people who attended the meeting actually thanked Duke’s Robert Charlebois, managing director of business development, for proposing the wind farm.

Duke has proposed a 270-megawatt wind farm with 161 turbines, enough to serve more than 100,000 homes. Blades will reach 415 feet in the air. The towers themselves will be 262 feet tall.

It would be the first wind farm in Nevada, a state that environmentalists say is strongly positioned to produce alternative energy.

The turbines would be on mountain terrain east of Searchlight, about 70 miles southeast of Las Vegas.

Originally, turbines were proposed for north and east of Searchlight as well.

“I presented that to the town of Searchlight and I couldn’t get to the car fast enough,” Charlebois said.

To make peace, the company amended plans so that all the turbines would be east of town. Since then, he said, townspeople have been somewhat more willing to work with the company.

Although Duke has applied for rights of way on 24,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management land around the town, the plan calls for only 120 acres to be dedicated to turbines and service roads. Another 600 acres would be temporarily disturbed during construction.

Charlebois said the company plans to use hundreds of local laborers, and employ another 15 to 20 people once the wind farm is operating. He said the company will buy as many supplies as possible from Nevada companies, pay significant property and sales tax to the state and make tens of millions of dollars in direct investment in the area.

Construction will take six months, after which Duke hopes to reopen the area to hunting and other backcountry recreational uses, Charlebois said.

And while Boulder City residents seemed satisfied with those answers — and assurances that the company had commissioned bird, bat and cultural studies — Searchlight residents were less accepting.

An environmentalist who attended the meeting said one resident said he supported the idea of wind and other renewable power sources — just not in his back yard.

Discussion: 16 comments so far…

By Bighorn

1/31/09 at 7:46 a.m.

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If people want solar and wind, they should be willing to put it on their roof, their backyard and it should go in places that have already been scraped up, not out in the Mojave. So yes, put it on your roof and in your backyard. Put it all over that ugly mess, Lake Las Vegas. Get some use out of it. Keep it off the public lands.

I went to the meeting. The was no PUBLIC comment from that resident that said he supported the idea of wind and other renewable power sources -- just not in his back yard.

This sounds a bit like biased journalism to me...

Here is a better transcript of the meeting: http://www.basinandrangewatch.org/Wind-S...
By Bighorn

1/31/09 at 8:05 a.m.

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Plus, you are trying to make the residents of Searchlight look stupid. You did not mention the comments about access, bird mortality, fences, nightlighting, archeaological sites and other wildlife. The woman who talked about ice never said someone may be stabbed in the heart. Please grow up...
By NyeCountyLocal

1/31/09 at 8:19 a.m.

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I was at the meeting, and I guess I heard these things somewhat differently: "In a freak ice storm, one Searchlight resident contended, turbines might freeze and shards of ice could fall from the blades and stab someone through the heart." The woman said that some of the turbines were originally placed very close to highway 95, and that ice might fly off and hit cars. Duke Energy later moved these turbines they said. This has happened in other parts of the world with ice on wind turbines, so it was a valid quesion.

"And: The turbines would be too water-intensive. (That person may have confused wind turbines with water-pumping windmills.)" No the discussion was about the cement that will be needed for each foundation for the 161 turbines. These are not small windmills, but 260-foot tall steel turbines, and Duke told us each will need a 40 x 40-foot cement foundation buried in the ground to bolt the turbine too. People in town wanted to know where the water would come from to make the cement, would the cement be shipped in or made on site? Would wells be dug? Really valid questions. Duke was not sure but said cement would probably be shipped in and no local water taken.

"Charlebois said the company plans to use hundreds of local laborers..." He did not say this in Searchlight, and implied most workers would be brought in from elsewhere. People asked about how labor from Central America was brought in for construction of the nearby El Dorado Valley solar thermal plant, and would Duke respect the local community more. The answer was evasive I thought.

Do we citizens have to do grassoots reporting to get the actual story? Did anyone actually go to the Searchlight meeting who is writing about it? I thought the residents of Searchlight had very valid and intelligent questions concerning a massive industrial development that is being proposed for their backyard. This is not a cute postcard green energy plant.
By Sunlizard

1/31/09 at 8:21 a.m.

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It sounds as though Ms. Sweet did not attend the Searchlight meeting. If she did, she is pro Duke Energy. The people who went to this meeting are retired and want a quiet place to live. They are concerned with the impacts. For a reporter to suggest they are all NIMBY is somewhat unprofessional. She is entitled to her personal opinion, but she should not be just telling the story she only wants people to hear. I thought the Sun was better than that.
By getalife

1/31/09 at 8:33 a.m.

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This is crap....are you kidding me.

Do the people that live in searchlight live in caves and have no running water and still have outhouses.

Get with the program, wind is renewable energy, the new "hot-button" item. As for the comment about the mojave, dude, it's the desert, there are no endangered trees or crap.

This is typical of our country, everyone bitches about the cost of energy and when it comes time to putting the rubber on the road, everybody is a NIMBY.

You get what you deserve.
By Sunlizard

1/31/09 at 8:46 a.m.

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LOL! Get a life, getalife! The people in Searchlight live in homes! Where do you live? Dude, there IS life in the Mojave. Read a book! (if you can)
By bag

1/31/09 at 2 p.m.

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It is interesting to contrast the difference in the Las Vegas Sun's coverage of windy energy and nuclear energy. In the Saturday edition reporter Phoebe Sweet correctly acknowledges a NIMBY reaction to locate a wind energy facility near searchlight, but then corrects misstatements made by the opponents, focuses on their weakest arguments and generally attempts to make the opponents look like nothing more than typical NIMBY types who offer no solutions. While I don't doubt her NIMBY characterization it is interesting to contrast this coverage with the Sun coverage of the nuclear energy issue. Let me start by saying that Phoebe is the best of the bunch at the Sun and does a much more honest job than the rest of your staff, but that's not saying much.

Phoebe correctly pointed out that wind energy uses little water. Why doesn't she make the same corrections related to Yucca and nuclear energy? The vast majority of statements made by the anti nuclear crowd and Nevada politicians related to Yucca are verifiably factually incorrect. Not once has the Sun corrected the constant stream of misstatements related to things nuclear.

The wind article focused on NIMBY -- why doesn't the Sun focus on NIMBY related to Yucca? NIMBY is the name of the game when it comes to Yucca. Interestingly with Yucca the people who have Yucca in their backyard support the project (Nye County and the rest of rural Nevada). Why is this? it is due to two primary facts. First, they have taken the time to study the issue carefully -- they make their decisions based on facts. Second, the people who live closest to Yucca understand how it can benefit Nevada.

The NIMBY reaction is coming from just a few people located mostly in Vegas. From reading the Sun article I have the impression there were roughly 40 opponents present and one supporter. Rarely will you go to a Yucca meeting and find any where close to 40 people present - -excluding all the people paid to be there who work for the State, Clark County etc... . The meetings are usually fairly evenly divided between supporters and opponent. You would never know it from reading the Sun. The Sun not only grossly overstates the number of people present, it rarely quotes the supporters who are present. Apparently wind power is on the Sun's list of approved energy sources so they quote the one supporter attending the wind meeting.

I do not oppose wind power. I think it is part of the solution to making American energy independent, but it isn't base load energy and it does have adverse impacts on environment that were discussed at the meeting. The Sun article, in my opinion intentionally focused on the inane arguments made instead of the good arguments. Why would they do this? The answer is very simple -- the Sun is unable to confine its editorial views to the opinion page.
By jpcortez

1/31/09 at 5:22 p.m.

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The most glaring difference between nuclear and wind energy is that when you are done with the turbine, you can recycle it. When you get done with the nuclear energy, you bury it for 10,000 years. I don't care how important our energy consumption is, we do not have the understanding, knowledge, or the intelligence to make 10,000 year decisions. 10,000 years ago Nevada was lush with vegetation. What is going to happen in the next 10,000 years?
By getalife

1/31/09 at 6:25 p.m.

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sunlizard, you are seriously misguided and ill-informed.

Everybody wants change yet nobody wants it in their back yard.

Searchlight wake-up all 550 of you.

P.S. Sunlizard, sorry to offend you as you really believe I meant you lived in a cave. I meant to say single-wide trailer.....feel better.
By getalife

1/31/09 at 6:28 p.m.

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Oh, I almost forgot, the comment about the shards of ice of ice falling off and stabbing someone in the chest, dude, I almost crapped my pants I laughed so hard.

OH, I get it, with all the global warming the mojave desert is the new north pole.

How helpless you all must feel for being so ignorant.
By getalife

1/31/09 at 8:31 p.m.

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jpcortez,

Is it your opinion that intelligence and technology stop in 2009.

Your comment seems to lend that inference.

Think again.
By johnevegas

2/1/09 at 6:37 a.m.

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"In a freak ice storm, one Searchlight resident contended, turbines might freeze and shards of ice could fall from the blades and stab someone through the heart."

True! And if a meteor lands in the middle of the wind farm, towers and blades will go flying everywhere! Along with Searchlight residents, their houses, the town, the stores, cars, boats, wheelchairs, Snuggies, and Life Alert buttons!

Ever attend a public hearing? Know who shows up? Those opposed.
By LindaS

2/1/09 at 8:14 a.m.

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"Oh, I almost forgot, the comment about the shards of ice of ice falling off and stabbing someone in the chest, dude, I almost crapped my pants I laughed so hard."

Maybe you better log off and change! Your IQ is starting to show here.

This really is a poorly written article, one sided article. The Sun is taking sides on this issue. I'm not too impressed.
By SteveT

2/1/09 at 9:40 a.m.

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The most serious issue with grid scale turbines is the noise. People living within 2 miles of turbines are at risk for Wind Turbine Syndrome. The wind industry is in denial about this problem because proper setbacks from homes will eliminate many good turbine locations.

IF YOU LIVE ANYWHERE NEAR THE PROPOSED TURBINES YOU SHOULD BE CONCERNED FOR YOUR FAMILY'S HEALTH.

A 2.5 MW turbine is equivalent to a 3000 HP motor, about the size of a diesel locomotive. The "engine room" on the top of a turbine weighs about 50 tons. The 150' long blades rip through the air molecules at over 250 MPH at the tips and each time the blade passes the tower a huge pressure wave is created, like the effect of a helicopter rotor passing over the tail. Turbines emit noise at about 100 decibels, equivalent to the noise of a rock concert. However, much of this noise is low frequency, lower in pitch than the lowest notes on a pipe organ and inaudible to many humans. It travels long distances and easily passes through walls.

This low frequency noise, although not perceived as loud, nevertheless stimulates the fine hairs in the inner ear and sends signals to the brain. Each turbine emits noise at a different time since turbines are not turning "in synch". This random pattern of "whumping" is known to cause sleep deprivation and the cascade of physical and mental problems resulting from too little sleep.

Be sure these turbines are at least 2 miles away from the nearest residence.
By getalife

2/1/09 at 10:25 p.m.

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I have a question for you brainiacs', If not there where? Canada? Mexico?

Oh, I get it, our economy depends on self-reliance and cutting loose the ties with evil coal and foreign oil, as long as it doesn't disturb my view of the desert.
By SteveT

2/2/09 at 2:33 p.m.

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Studies of wind power in Europe and the US show that land based wind power contributes only 10% of the nameplate rating of the turbine to the capacity of the grid. Off shore wind has greater potential, but land based wind is nothing but a taxpayer funded scam that will have zero impact on fossil fuel and coal consumption, or on the collective human carbon footprint. The wind industry is a propaganda machine. Do your homework. Learn the facts.