Final EIR Released for Lompoc Wind Farm

The wind farm can provide for our transportation needs as well if we build this electrically powered transportation system to accompany it. www.unimodal.net

Before anyone takes a harsh look at this project and even begins to consider the drawbacks stated in the ERI, let us consider the alternative to this project and the impact made by drilling off our coast by big oil companies. There is no comparison. The unknown numbers of protected bird and bat populations which may be killed could easily be deterred with an electronic device such as a High Frequency Sonic Repeller. Let this project begin.

So offshore drilling would be better with small oil companies?

Wind farms are ugly.

Let there be more offshore oil and gas production!!

Having grown up in Goleta and lived through the huge negative economic as well as environmental impact of the rig disaster in the 60's it is incomprehensible that anyone would advocate more drilling here. Especially in light of the shipping lanes location, not to mention the huge number of negatives.

I know we tend to be a community of NIMBY's, but who would advocate channel drilling as a positive solution for the idiocy of our current national and global positions?

Ever see photos of what our coast looked like when OIl was allowed free reign? Right, more drilling.

Wind farms? May be ugly to some, but the alternative is far worse. Bird strike can easily be mitigated. Build it.

This debate is so typical of SB. If everyone is right and no one will compromise we'll never make any progress toward energy independence. We need oil. We need gas. We can develop wind power, solar power, and nuclear power. They all have their pros and cons. None are beautiful. All have environmental impacts. And please, let's learn from history (i.e. the Great Oil Spill of 1969) to do things smarter and better and not just as an excuse to do nothing or push the problems off to "the other guy" or "the other state". There should be a special, supersize word far beyond NIMBY for what goes on in SB. And yes, I love the beauty here and think it should be preserved within the scope of the big picture. But I also like shelter, food, heat, etc. And rational, big picture thinking. Not so much emotional rant.

"Ever see photos of what our coast looked like when OIl was allowed free reign?" - david3

Yes, I believe they were taken in Summerland around the turn of the century- and I mean when it turned from 1899 to 1900, not when it turned from 1999 to 2000. Welcome to the next turn of the century and slant drilling.

Yes I worked at a place that purchased one of those "ultra sonic bat and bird repellers", hoping to keep their pond sanitary. I mean if they work so well, why do they still use scare crows and tinsel in local vineyards? The birds just laughed at them while enjoying a dip in the pond...the only thing that might help here is a loudspeaker that yells "BLADE" upon every repetition of the bird blender.

It's funny how people are concerned about how Santa Barbara looked with Oil Derricks covering it, but these wind farm things all over the scenic valleys are so awesome because they are NOT OIL.

Face it, you can't run everything on electricity (electric airplanes? factories? ships? submarines? Big Rigs? Trains? well maybe trains locally - hell of a job rigging the entire country with electric trains powered by windmills...but keep dreaming, maybe some day... meanwhile, we need oil, k?

So ... how fast do these wind turbines spin? Do they spin so fast that a bird/bat can't avoid them? Dutch windmills are very near the sea, do they harm seabirds? If you can generate enough torque, perhaps you don't need so much RPM?

It doesn't really matter much how fast it spins - the bird's own momentum under it's own power against a solid object is enough to kill it. Some birds fly pretty fast. Have you ever seen a bird fly into a window? Dead bird. The problem is the enormity of the blade and the unexpectedness of it coming into it's flight path. Look at the size of the blades in the photos on Wikipedia "wind turbine design" - they are the size of a speedboat.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_turbin...

By that logic, putting up any large structure like a power tower would also kill birds?

Well, I don't have any dogs in this race, just looking for some solid info to form an opinion. The Wiki link says wind turbines typcially rotate at 5 to 20 RPM and optimally operate in winds around 30mph.

I've found all kinds of web pages about "avian mortality" vis a vis wind power. Some claim its a problem, others claim not so much. Its interesting to see data put up by some people indicating causes of bird deaths are comparatively huge in other areas, and that the studies at Altamont Pass indicate its got a unique set of features that predispose the site to avian mortality. Still undecided however.

Read again -"the unexpectedness of it coming into it's flight path." The blades move, towers don't.