Not In My Backyard!

Windmill Pollution – UGGGGGGG – They are Everywhere!

Cripes Midge, you are a liberal Democrat and always err on the side of the greater good what the hell do you mean NIMBY?  Why are all the f’n windmills going up in Southern Italy!!!  Energia eolica – power generated by the wind – is a grand and noble idea.  I just don’t want to look at another bloody giant windmill.  They are cropping up like weeds on every hill in Campania.  Last year, I saw the wind farms from afar and thought them noble and wonderful.  Italy was going green – great!  I made a cute video and gushed about the inroads Italy was making on renewable energy.  Here’s the link:  http://wp.me/p3rc2m-8h

The Associazione Nazionale Energia del Vento – ANEV has a great map on their website!  Pull it down and look where the windmills are!  Yup, not near the ski resorts in the rich north but in the south.  Come on – go look –  http://www.anev.org/

The European Commission – way back in 2001 – set a goal for Italy to obtain at least 25% of its electricity form renewable sources by 2010.   The Italian government targeted 12,000 MW by 2020. Does it all have to be  windmills? How about a nice solar field on the mountains they don’t obstruct the views?

We SEE Them Rising to the Sky Near Our House and Shudder.

Now, even when we sit on our balcony in Pontelandolfo I see windmills.  More and more every month!  The hills are alive with the sound of bzzzzzzzzz.  According to a recent article in Il Sannio – our local paper will soon be enjoying even more.  http://www.ilsannioquotidiano.it/attualita/item/19265-eolico-multinazionali-scatenate-altre-richieste-di-autorizzazioni.html

La società di Bolzano ha depositato un progetto per realizzare un parco da 56 Mw tra Pontelandolfo e Morcone.

Now, leaving Pontelandolfo and driving south through Puglia, I’m staring out the windows looking for trulli (round huts with a conical roof) and all I see are fields of windmills.  There are so many on SS55  that I thought I was on the New Jersey Turnpike in the middle of an industrial zone.  I know, I know it is good for the farmer – he gets paid rent for the land.  It is good for the planet.  But the more I read it seems like it’s really good for the banks who have the notes, the businessmen who get the cash from the EU and of course the mob.

Right Near the Highway – Behind a Rest Stop

Take a gander at this article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2356879/Italian-mafia-turns-wind-farm-investment-launder-money-benefit-EU-subsidies.html  Here is the opening paragraph:

The mafia is ramping up investment in wind farms to launder criminal earnings and benefit from generous EU subsidies, a report by Europe’s policing agency has warned.

Attracted by generous EU and state handouts, and coupled with lax controls, the Europol analysis found that Italian  gangsters are increasingly  seeing renewable energy as easy pickings.

So all I”m saying is Not In My Backyard!