County Wind Tower Ordinance Deadly
The Wind Tower Ordinance recommended out of committee to the Manitowoc County Board will cripple jobs creation and growth in our County's cities and villages.
Whether it's Valders, Mishicot or Manitowoc, this new law, if passed in May by the County Board, will halt municipal growth and economic development by hemming us in at our borders. This will devastate our bourgeoning local economy.
Whether it's Valders, Mishicot or Manitowoc, this new law, if passed in May by the County Board, will halt municipal growth and economic development by hemming us in at our borders. This will devastate our bourgeoning local economy.
posted by MantyMayorBlog at
6:48 AM
6 Comments:
I, the Mayor, have long been an outspoken advocate for wind power and clean coal technology. The Manitowoc Public Utilities (MPU) is testament to my efforts to install environmentally friendly electric generation facilities. My previous comments on wind power should not be construed as a position of oppostion, rather a position advocating the importance of wind power AND economic development through good planning.
(green) Power to the People!
By
MantyMayorBlog, at 7:38 AM
Our concern regarding the Wind Tower ordinance is that in its current form it will cause sprawl. This is because a wind farm adjacent to a city or village will force residential or commercial subdivisions further away from the core services provided by the municipality leaving vacant land that may not even be suitable for farming.
We agree that redeveloping abandoned or brownfield sites in our city reduces sprawl and we've done a very effective job in this area (ie: our downtown).
The old cement kiln site (not to be confused with the active St. Mary's Cement transloading operation)is one of the last of such sites in Manty that needs to be redeveloped. We had a project and grant money lined up for this site, but the seller (Rockwell Lime) and the buyer could not come to terms...and so we continue to look and wait.
By
MantyMayorBlog, at 7:52 AM
I definately agree with you on the Oridinance. However, I still have concerns over so-called "clean coal" technology, because, while it is better at keeping particulates out of the atmosphere, it is not 100%. Further, it still requires the mining and transportation of coal, which as you have mentioned in community updates is quite expensive. I have to respectfully disagree with your assesment that this expense is solely due to the non-regulation of rail transportation.
It seems that as other energy technologies advance, it is just becoming more expensive to actually mine the coal, considering the cost of labor, and the high priced benefits that get paid for doing such dangerous work.
Also, I am curious as to which brownfields in the downtown area you are speaking about. If I remember correctly, (and I could definately be wrong on this) I thought the sites of the current library and current City Hall were brownfields that the city purchased (cheaply) because the landowners could not afford to clean up the site as required by law. Oddly, though, governmental entities are not required to clean up these sites prior to building and conducting business on them, and I do not believe the City of Manitowoc actually remedied the contamination, but simply took the opportunity to build on cheap land. Please correct me if I am wrong.
By
M. Kadow, at 9:21 AM
Hi Matt and thanks for blogging with da mare.
Green Power is great, but it also the most expensive of technologies to deploy. In addition, wind is great as lopng as it is windy and solar is great as long as it is sunny, but when natural energy is not available something has to turn the turbines to keep the lights on and America working.
Base load coal plants are the cheapest current alsternative as long as a moratorium continues on nuclear power.
Coal costs are now being driven by the cost of natural gas which has exploding due to trading, as opposed to the concept of supply and demand.
Coal costs and transportation costs are combining to do lots of damage to the average American's pocketbook when it comes to paying their electric bills.
As far as brownfields are concerned, you are correct in that our city services campus including the city hall, library and safety building are all built on brownfields. Our city made this wise decision because nobody else was willing to take the risk of buiding on these sites. We bought the parcels at market prices which were low due to the contamination. This is not a bad thing for taxpayers.
You are only partially correct on the issue of clean-up /solution. Environmental remediation was employed at the public safety building. Encapsulating with impervious surfaces (roofs and asphalt parking lots) was all that was required by the DNR for the city hall and library.
The city also incentivized the reuse of the "Smalley" property (where a 3mm dollar professional office is being built), the old Manitowoc Company penninsula and the Burger Boat yard.
A major brownfield that remains is the area to the north and west of the tenth street bridge which will probably move in the relatively near future as our condo housing market strengthens.
By
MantyMayorBlog, at 12:33 PM
"Can anyone tell me why liberals are against all forms of energy? Why are they refusing to try wind power? Is it just in them to always make everybody miserable?"
Delicious! Although judging from the ridiculous garbage that "concerned citizen" writes on his/her own blog I should expect nothing less. It is the national Republican lobbying machine that is shackled to the bed of big oil. To seriously charge liberals in general with being "against all forms of energy" is vitriolic and flies in the face of the neocon's own stereotypes of those tree-hugging do-gooders.
I'm all for wind energy and other forms of green/renewable energy. However one has to note that it is very expensive, as the Mayor pointed out. We don't have natural hot steam vents like Iceland to allow us to go all hydrogen.
Yet buying coal just because it is the cheapest is also supporting mining and extraction industries that pollute our lakes and streams and makes our fish and water dangerous to consume. That is FACT.
So there exists the rock and hard-place between which the choices lie. Go all-out green at higher financial cost, or sell-out to cheap fuel at the future cost of our natural resources and health.
At the risk of going off-topic, I also agree that we need to do something about the runaway sprawl. Every apartment village on the northern and southern outskirts of town makes me vomit, as do the big box stores on the outskirts of town which take the life out of downtown.
By
Don, at 12:47 PM
Coincidentally I came across an article at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/18/AR2006041801188.html today. It talks about how ironically environmentalists are opposing wind farms.
By
Don, at 1:58 PM
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