New Bedford May Buy Wind Energy for Less Than Many States Pay for Dirty Coal Power

UPDATE 4/25: The New Bedford City Council briefly threatened to turn an easy touchdown into a fumble, but they managed to approve the contract.

A proposed wind power contract for New Bedford isn't just feel-good - it's look-at-this-giant-pile-of-money-we're-saving-taxpayers.

As Ariel Wittenberg reports in the Standard-Times, the New Bedford City Council will soon consider a proposal to buy power from a planned wind farm in Plymouth after a subcommittee approved the plan that would save the city somewhere around 30 percent on energy costs:

The proposal, made by Mayor Jon Mitchell's office, would enter the city into a power purchase agreement with Future Generation Wind LLC to buy wind-generated electricity at 10.8 cents per kilowatt hour for the next 20 years. [...]

Scott Durkee, director of the city's energy office, noted that the power purchase agreement will also save the city money. Currently, he said, the city's lowest costing energy contracts are 11 to 13 cents per kilowatt hour, with the city paying closer to 15 to 17 cents per kilowatt hour on most contracts. Signing with Future Generation LLC is predicted to save New Bedford upwards of $20 million over the life of the contract.

Additionally, Future Generation LLC is offering to pay the city $250,000 in a sort of signing bonus meant to help further New Bedford's efforts to become a premier port for offshore wind. Future Generation owner Keith Mann said he is also considering using New Bedford as the receiving port for his turbines.

It's hard to overstate what a bargain this is - the best energy at the lowest price.

For some context, 28 states paid more than 10.8 cents is About per kilowatt hour for their electricity in February. And most of those states were sending the money out of state to buy coal and natural gas that polluted their air and added fuel to our climate crisis.

On top of all the benefits of cleaner air and climate protection, an extra million dollars a year is a huge deal in a city whose entire budget for FY2014 is $263 million. That's an extra dozen or more police officers or teachers or city bus drivers. And on top of that, New Bedford businesses would get the boost from turbine construction.

Massachusetts Voters Keep Rejecting Wind Turbine Restrictions

It's happened again, this time in Plymouth. Once again, an effort to limit wind turbines was put before voters, citing hazy "health" concerns, and once again clean energy has won in a landslide.

The Plymouth Town Meeting on Saturday rejected a de facto ban on new wind turbines:

If approved, this article would have limited the construction of wind turbines to two overlay districts – one at the Camelot Industrial Park, the other along Commerce Way – and would have modified the required setbacks and the total height allowed. Opponents of the article suggested that if it were approved no additional wind turbines could be located in town.

Town Meeting Rep. Simon Thomas, part owner of the Camelot Wind turbine, said that Plymouth was already the toughest place in New England to try and get a permit for a new turbine.

The article would've required a two-thirds supermajority to pass, but didn't even come close to a simple majority, losing 49-68. The clear defeat for turbine opponents comes just weeks after the Plymouth Zoning Board rejected Stop & Shop's request to build a wind turbine, citing the dangers of an I think I might be able to hear it pandemic and don't forget deadly shadows.

The Plymouth vote comes on the heels of similar election results over the last few months in the nearby towns of Fairhaven and Falmouth. Falmouth elected officials put a plan to tear down the town's wind turbines before voters, who rejected it by a nearly 2-to-1 margin. And in Fairhaven, voters chose a pro-reality candidate for Board of Health over an turbine hysteria candidate, also by a nearly 2-to-1 margin.

While elected officials keep trying to pander to the vocal handful of wind hypochondriacs who show up to complain at meetings, Massachusetts voters continue to strongly support local wind energy projects. How many times to do they have to send that message at the ballot box before it sinks in?

Plymouth Zoning Board Ignores Law, Blocks Wind Turbine

If you're going to deny a local business the right to do what it wants on its own property, shouldn't you have an actual reason? Not according to the Plymouth Zoning Board, which rejected a local Stop & Shop's request to build a wind turbine strictly based on personal preference, reports Wicked Local's Emily Clark:

After three hours of listening to protracted and sometimes confusing arguments for and against a proposal to site a wind turbine behind Stop & Shop off Exit 6, the Zoning Board of Appeals voted Wednesday night to deny the special permit request.

While ZBA Chairman Peter Conner and ZBA member Bill Keohan said the project meets the town's bylaw requirements, the rest of the board expressed concerns of its proximity to residential areas and other issues.

Now, according to WATD's Charles Mathewson, the turbine would be 600 feet from an apartment complex, which would be awfully close. A GE report recommended wind turbines be placed no closer than 900 feet to residential areas.

The answer to that is to pass a law that says wind turbines should be placed no closer than 900 feet to residential areas. That's how we do things in this country - we make laws and we follow them.

Instead, the Zoning Board rejected the turbines based not on any law, but on "conflicting evidence of health effects of large turbines," which is basically like saying you're worried the wind turbines will give people herpes. Meanwhile, Plymouth will continue relying on a rickety old nuclear power plant that threatens local wildlife.

Zoning Boards are the worst.