LA TIMES WRONG ON WIND

Fact check: Los Angeles Times misleads on safety in wind industry
Tom Gray, August 5, 2011 (Into The Wind)

"…[T]he Los Angeles Times published another article…with a variety of misleading allegations [about wind]…[L]ike the ones before it, relied on uninformed speculation by people who oppose wind farms, rather than knowledgeable experts. The biased results show a lack of understanding of how federal and state officials regulate workplace safety, and the strict standards already in place. Nor were all the proactive safety efforts at wind projects recognized…

"Rhetoric: Accidents involving wind turbines have increased in the last decade…Facts: AWEA is not aware of any member of the American public having been harmed by a wind turbine. Training and education are paramount in the wind industry…As the article notes, reported on-the-job accidents involving workers peaked in 2008."

A man doesn't do this work without every provision for his safety and wind's safety record is enviable, having not despoiled any ecosystems or irradiated any oceans. (click to enlarge)

"Rhetoric: ‘One of these days, a turbine's going to fall on someone,’ says a spokesperson for a national anti-wind group…Facts: There are more than 50,000 operating wind turbines in the U.S., and some have been in place for nearly 30 years. None has ever fallen on anyone, and the odds of it happening are minuscule, because one of the factors in siting a wind turbine is setbacks for public safety…

"Rhetoric: Wind turbine accidents have increased over the past decade…Facts: It’s certainly possible that overall accidents have increased in number, but that fact alone does not equal a poor safety record—the industry has been growing rapidly, and the total amount of wind generating capacity operating in the U.S. today is roughly 15 times what it was at the end of the year 2000…The moral is simple: Anti-wind groups are not a reliable source of objective information, and repeating what they say without some serious fact-checking is not going to lead to credible journalism."