Letter to the Editor — Lethbridge Herald — September 20, 2013

Re: Alberta lagging in wind power generation, Sept. 14.

The CanWEA and Dave Mabell try hard to perpetuate the myth that wind electricity is good for Albertans and good for the environment. Wind is expensive and inefficient; it does little to reduce carbon dioxide emissions; and wind turbines kill thousands of bats and birds in Alberta annually.

In Alberta, electrical output from wind turbines is just 32 per cent of design capacity, rendering actual production facilities and new transmissions lines inefficient – lines that we pay for with every electricity bill. We have spent billions on wind generation in Alberta and yet wind produces only three per cent of our electrical needs.

But have carbon dioxide emissions been reduced by three per cent? Almost certainly not, because when the wind blows, gas and coal plants still operate. Wind is…