Notes

¹⁰¹ Representative of high-cost nuclear power, PG&E's 2,160-MW Diablo Canyon nuclear units cost ratepayers between 11 cents and 12 cents per kwh in 1993-95. Pacific Gas and Electric Company, 1995 Annual Report, p. 39. The market value of these two units under competitive pricing is estimated by PG&E to be a negative $10 billion (ibid., p. 15).

¹⁰² This was the variable cost of producing coal oil at the Parachute Creek (Colorado) plant before it closed in early 1992. Robert L. Bradley, Jr., (Houston: Institute for Energy Research, 1993), p. 17. Up-front capacity costs would make this estimate substantially higher.

¹⁰³ The total cost of the SPR, primarily consisting of crude oil acquisition, is around $22 billion. Restated in 1995 dollars, that is over $36 billion, which, divided by total inventory of 591 million barrels, is over $60 per barrel. DOE Budget Study.

¹⁰⁴ This range was taken from the contract prices of gas produced at the Great Plains coal gasification project, which began at $6.75 per MMBtu and more recently had a commodity charge of $3.70 per MMBtu. Foster Natural Gas Report, February 8, 1996, pp. 3-4. Operating costs alone were estimated to be around $3 per MMBtu in 1988. (Paul Duke, "U.S. Finds Buyer for Big Synfuels Plant but Won't Recoup Its Initial Investment," Wall Street Journal, August 8, 1988, p. 36.)

¹⁰⁵ Killing endangered species, including golden eagles, prohibited under two federal acts, is a felony punishable by two years in jail and a fine of up to $250,000. Paul Gipe, Wind Energy Comes of Age, p. 344.

¹⁰⁶ "The impacts of major oil and gas development in the Arctic environment are significant, chronic, cumulative, and difficult or impossible to mitigate and prevent. . . . [A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service] report documented extensive loss of vegetation, and concluded that most bird species in the area have declined in population, as have bears, wolves and other predators." Testimony of Lisa Speer, Natural Resources Defense Council before the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Arctic Coastal Plain Competitive Oil and Gas Leasing Act, U.S. Senate, 101st Cong., 1st Sess. (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1989), pp. 116, 121.

¹⁰⁷ Paul Gipe, Wind Energy Comes of Age, p. 450.

¹⁰⁸ All are from Amy Linn, "Whirly Birds," SF Weekly, March 29-April 4, 1995, pp. 11-12, 14.

¹⁰⁹ Ibid., p. 15.

¹¹⁰ CEED Study, p. 2-15.

¹¹¹ This estimate is based on estimated bird deaths at Altamont Pass alone of 7,000 through 1991 (California Energy Markets, May 8, 1992, pp. 16-17).

¹¹² Biosystems Analysis, Inc., Wind Turbine Effects on Avian Activity, Habitat Use, and Mortality in Altamont Pass and Solano County Wind Resource Areas: 1989-91 (Sacramento: California Energy Commission, 1992), p. xi; Elissa Wolfson, "Who Owns the Wind?," E Magazine, May/June 1993, p. 19.

¹¹³ The Valdez kill was estimated to be 200 out of a total bald eagle population of 40,000, a percentage of 0.5. Alexander Volokh, "Punitive Damages and Environmental Law," Reason Foundation, Policy Study No. 213, September 1996, p. 52.

¹¹⁴ Jan Beyea, "Birds, Windpower & Energy Futures," Presentation to Audubon's Asilomar Conference, March 27, 1994, p. 1. Copy of speech in files.

¹¹⁵ Jan Beyea, "Avian Issues in Wind Development," Presented to the 1995 Annual Meeting of the American Wind Energy Association, March 1995, p. 2. Copy of speech in files.

¹¹⁶ Ibid., p. 5.

¹¹⁷ From the Editor, "Never Again," Windpower Monthly (February 1994), p. 4. The editorial from the organ of the windpower community added: "The situation should never have arisen and the industry ought to be kicking itself."

¹¹⁸ Ibid., p. 14.

¹¹⁹ Ibid., p. 4. For a revealing look at the internal debate among the prowind community over whether to expose the Tarifa bird death problem, see Arthur O'Donnell, "Wind Turbines, Dead Birds and Bad News," California Energy Markets, February 18, 1994, p. 5.

¹²⁰ For a history of bird research at wind farms, see LGL Ltd., Proceedings of National Avian-Wind Power Planning Meeting (Washington, DC: LGL, 1995), pp. 33-52. See also Jonathan Weisman, "Two Dead Eagles Fuel Altamont Debate," Tri-Valley Herald, September 12, 1995, p. A1, and "CEC Awards Grant Money for Bird Research," California Energy Markets, December 19, 1996, p. 2.

¹²¹ Quoted in Arthur O'Donnell, "Energy Commission Studies Bird Deaths at Wind Farms," California Energy Markets, May 8, 1992, p. 16. For claimed progress with the problem, see Colleen Wilder, "Kenetech Reports Bird Progress," California Energy Markets, June 2, 1995, p. 2.

¹²² Directorate-General XII, Externalities of Energy, vol. 6, Wind and Hydro (Belgium: European Commission, 1995), pp. 90-91.

¹²³ "Opening Comments of the Natural Resources Defense Council and Comments on Balancing Public Policy Objectives in a Competitive Environment," California Public Utilities Commission Hearings on Restructuring California's Electric Services Industry and Reforming Regulation, June 7, 1994, p. 14.

¹²⁴ Christopher Flavin, "The Bridge to Clean Energy," World Watch, July/August 1992, p. 12. Flavin on the same page mentions that "no energy source is ecologically pure" but provides no follow-up analysis of the environmental problems of wind and solar, much less a possible monetary value.

¹²⁵ "To some who drive through the Alameda Country, California site, Altamont is a visual blight. Acre after acre of 100-foot tall turbines in long curved rows line the softly rolling hills. . . . Altamont is where neighbors complain -- loudly and with media coverage -- that the noise from the turbines is unbearable." Carlotta Collette, "Wind's Eastern Front," Northwest Energy News, July/August 1992, p. 14.

¹²⁶ Quoted in Paul Gipe, Wind Energy Comes of Age, p. 258.

¹²⁷ This has been called the "machines in the garden" problem. Ibid., p. 255.

¹²⁸ "When heavy rains struck, runoff surged along roadcuts to cascade down steep slopes, gouging deep gullies into the mountain sides and leaving some wind turbines standing precariously on exposed foundations." Ibid., p. 414. Also see p. 317.

¹²⁹ Ibid., p. 417.

¹³⁰ "Such flashing lights are particularly annoying at night, as is the bright 'security' lighting common at wind plant substations in California." Ibid., p. 320.

¹³¹ "California wind developers say wide roads speed construction by enabling two-way traffic of heavy vehicles to move at high speed. These roads met the need of the frantic yearend construction schedules typical of California's tax-credit era." Ibid., p. 411. Also see pp. 322-23.

¹³² Ibid., p. 342.

¹³³ Ibid., p. 444.

¹³⁴ "Unfortunately, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of wind turbines in California that are less reliable, less well maintained, and less well sited. . . . Some simply do not work." Ibid., p. 302.

¹³⁵ Ibid., p. 324.

¹³⁶ Paul Gipe, letter to Charles Imbrecht, Chairman, California Energy Commission, document file 96-RDD-1890, October 15, 1996. ¹³⁷137 Paul Gipe, Wind Energy Comes of Age, p. 454.

¹³⁸ Proceedings of National Avian-Wind Power Planning Meeting, p. 5. The aforementioned West Texas wind-power project evoked this reaction from an official of the Guadalupe Mountains National Park: "I've got a lot of mixed feelings. I understand that wind power is supposed to be clean, yet I don't look just at the visual intrusion. We're tearing up a lot of country putting up those wind towers." Quoted in Diane Jennings, "Wind Power Gets a Turn," The Dallas Morning News, September 24, 1995, p. 49A.

¹³⁹ James Bruggers, "Stirring Ill Winds," San Ramon Valley Times, May 14, 1995, p. A1. Explains Paul Gipe: "There are many ways in which a wind turbine can ignite a wildfire. Electrical short circuits, an overheated bearing, downed electrical cables, welding splatter from technicians servicing the turbines, or even the catalytic converter on service vehicles can start a conflagration." Gipe, Wind Energy Comes of Age, p. 370.

¹⁴⁰ Christopher Flavin and Nicholas Lenssen, Power Surge, p. 294.

¹⁴¹ Paul Gipe, Wind Energy Comes of Age, p. 396.

¹⁴² CEED Study, pp. 2-12. A land-use estimate by EPRI is near the low end of this range. Proceedings of National Avian-Wind Power Planning Meeting, p. 11.

¹⁴³ Christopher Flavin, "Power Shock: The Next Energy Revolution," World Watch, January/February 1996, p. 15. A more recent estimate of world capacity is 6,200 megawatts.

¹⁴⁴ Michael Grubb and Niels Meyer, "Wind Energy: Resources, Systems, and Regional Strategies," p. 173.

¹⁴⁵ The "footprint" argument for ANWR drilling was made against the Sierra Club to no avail by the Bush Administration's Department of Energy. Stated DOE: "Full development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) would directly impact only 13,000 acres, an extremely small portion (less than 1 percent) of the 1.5 million acre coastal plain where leasing would occur. The coastal plain, in turn, is a small portion of ANWR itself, which totals 19 million acres." Letter from the Department of Energy to the Sierra Club, reprinted in Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Legislative History of the Energy Policy Act of 1992, 6 vols. (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, November 1994), vol. 2, p. 1459.

¹⁴⁶ Michael Grubb and Niels Meyer, "Wind Energy: Resources, Systems, and Regional Strategies," p. 174.

¹⁴⁷ Daniel Kaplan, "Is The Green Promise of Hydro Fading to Brown?" The Energy Daily, December 7, 1992, p. 1.

¹⁴⁸ Hydroelectric Relicensing, Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Energy Conservation and Power, Committee on Energy and Commerce, House of Representatives, 99th Cong., 1st Sess. (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1985), p. 124.

¹⁴⁹ "Approximately 2 to 3 percent of the power capacity of small power-producing projects and cogenerators that is represented by new dams on natural water courses is responsible for at least 90 percent of the environmental problems and environmental controversies associated with that whole range of [PURPA] projects." Ibid.

¹⁵⁰ Public Law 99-495, 100 Stat. 1243 (1987).

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