To the Editor:
Wind farms have been developed with strong community support in three upstate New York towns, two of which you mention in "Windmills on Their Minds" (news article, Aug. 28).
Gov. George E. Pataki deserves support for expanding wind energy development. New York is fossil-fuel poor, but has abundant wind energy potential. Wind power reduces pollution from coal-fired power plants, increases jobs, stabilizes electricity prices and fights acid rain.
Wind power is quiet and poses no significant falling-ice hazard, and many independent studies show that modern turbines do not harm bird populations.
Surely we can find a balance between community values and the need for clean energy.
DAVID R. WOOLEY, Project Director, American Wind Energy Association. Albany, NY Aug. 29, 2002
To the Editor:
Re "Windmills on Their Minds" (news article, Aug. 28):
A visit last month to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts permitted some observations on how 17th-century Dutch painters viewed windmills. The landscapes on view contained at least 11 windmills. In one painting, two windmills formed a central part of the composition. In others, the windmills could have easily been deleted but were retained as parts of the viewshed.
If 17th-century Dutch painters considered windmills to be legitimate parts of a landscape, why should 21st-century windmills be considered a blot on the land? I think we had better get used to looking at windmills. We are going to have to cover at least 1 percent of our landscape with windmills just to replace the nuclear power plants that make us so vulnerable to terrorist attack.
THOMAS THWAITES State College, PA, Aug. 28, 2002
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