“Muse was one of three Democrats who joined committee
Republicans in firmly opposing O'Malley wind bill last year. Finance Committee
Chairman Thomas M. "Mac" Middleton, a Charles County
Democrat, said that with Ramirez on the panel, the chances that O'Malley
will win approval of his top remaining environmental priority are much improved.”
For the record, fellow HoCo Senator Ed Kasemeyer also voted against the bill in committee last year.
For Maryland
ratepayers, this bill is just another hidden tax. According to this story by Aaron C.
Davis in The Washington Post, the governor’s wind farm plan would add “a couple
of extra dollars to every Marylander’s monthly electric bill for 20 years and
thousands onto those of the state’s largest businesses.”
Wind power is also not as environmentally friendly as it
seems. According to this story by Robert Bryce in The Wall Street Journal, “the
wind energy industry has had a license to kill golden eagles and lots of other
migratory birds.”
“Last June, the Los Angeles Times reported that about 70
golden eagles are being killed per year by the wind turbines at Altamont Pass,
about 20 miles east of Oakland, Calif. A 2008 study funded by the Alameda
County Community Development Agency estimated that about 2,400 raptors,
including burrowing owls, American kestrels, and red-tailed hawks—as well as
about 7,500 other birds, nearly all of which are protected under the Migratory
Bird Treaty Act—are being killed every year by the turbines at Altamont.”
I’ll bet you won’t hear as much about that in Annapolis this year as you do about the purported hazards of fracking.
