By Miriam Raftery

Photo: Bald Eagle in East County by Scott Lagace

April 16, 2022 (San Diego’s East County) – Opponents of wind farms in San Diego’s East County have long voiced concerns over potentially deadly impacts on eagles. Now a major wind energy company, NextEra Energy, a subsidiary of ESI Energy, has pleaded guilty to violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and killing 150 eagles at multiple wind energy facilities.

San Diego and Imperial County Eagles Are at Risk

January 5, 2014 (San Diego’s East County)  -- In December, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) released its final decision to weaken a key rule that protects Bald and Golden Eagles, in order to more quickly develop renewable energy.

The Protect Our Communities Foundation (POC), a nonprofit community organization in San Diego’s East County, opposes this rule change stating it would harm eagles, has not been adequately studied, and violates federal law. Two local  wind projects would be affected by the change.

“Eagles symbolize America’s national heritage and deserve more protection, not less. This rule change will make it harder to protect the remaining eagles that San Diegans love,” said Donna Tisdale, POC’s Secretary.

Originally posted Saturday, June 15 at San Diego Loves Green

(Image left: courtesy East County Magazine)

By Roy L. Hales

June 18, 2013 (San Diego’s East County) – I disagree with one of the statements County Supervisor Dave Roberts made in his recent editorial. I do not think the County Board of Supervisors is as powerless, in regard to the final decision about wind farms going onto the Federal and tribal lands in East County, as he seems to think. I suspect that, if they were willing, the Board could bring a lot of assistance to the East County residents fighting to preserve their quality of life.

“Pattern Energy is going to pollute what it couldn't destroy… Monsanto’s Roundup is an herbicde cousin  to Agent Orange--the defoliant sprayed in Viet Nam that harmed a generation of veterans and their children… This herbicide—a neurotoxin--is going to get carried downwind. Did Pattern fail to notice that there is still a community with children here in spite of its industrialization of the area with 112 turbines and a substation?”

By Linda Ewing, Ocotillo resident

Photo: Sahara mustard, a “weed” the BLM wants to eradicate with toxic herbicides

May 14, 2013 (Ocotillo) -- Herbicide Mitigation? What is that? I heard these two disturbing words and felt panic.

I knew instinctively that it was going to have something to do with this Ocotillo Wind Energy Facility because nothing good has come from this controversial project since the day Pattern Energy uttered its first words of deception to the town of Ocotillo. Since the day the company first tried to convince us that its massive 438 foot-tall industrial-sized wind turbines were good for the economy.  And yes, the very same day we realized that human lives were disposable and irrelevant in the statistical world of giant wind turbine developers.

November1, 2012 --  (San Diego’s East County) – ECM World Watch helps you be an informed citizen about important issues globally and nationally. As part of our commitment to reflecting all voices and views, we include links to a wide variety of news sources representing a broad spectrum of political, religious, and social views. Top world and U.S. headlines include:

U.S.

• Sandy blamed for 157 deaths (CNN)
• Impact by state: States pick up pieces as Sandy fades (CNN)
• Hurricane Sandy blows election off course (Reuters)
• Obama on storm recovery: We will not quit until this is done (CNN)
• Romney’s challenge: How to campaign after Sandy (CBS)
• Romney ties to voting machine company that could decide the election causing concerns (Forbes)
• Romney’s lax regulation may have fueled meningitis outbreak (Salon)
• Did U.S. go too far in secret surveillance of citizens? Case heads to Supreme Court  (Christian Science Monitor)
• U.S. sues Bank America for mortgage fraud (NPR)
• Citing food safety concerns, Kroger calls it quits on sprouts (NPR)
• Bloomberg Backs Obama, Citing Fallout From Storm

WORLD

• Death knell for wind farms: Enough is enough, says Energy Minister in Britain (UK Telegraph)
• In world first, biggest refugee camp gets university (Christian Science Monitor)
• In vitro fertilization increases risk of birth defects (Jerusalem Post)
• AP interview: Japan nuke plant water worries rise (U-T San Diego)
• Did Israel just blow up an Iranian weapons factory in Sudan? (Christian Science Monitor)
• Death toll tops 100 in ethnic strife in Myanmar (NPR)

Read more for excerpts and links to full stories.

"I thought wind energy was something I could believe in. This film suggests it's just another corporate flim-flam game. - Film critic Rogert Ebert

May 10, 2012 (San Diego)  A special free showing of the award-winning documentary ‘Windfall,’ an exploration of industrial wind impacts on a rural community, will lbe held tonight at 7 p.m. at the Landmark Theater in Hillcrest. The showing is cosponsored by Backcountry Against Dumps and The Protect Our Communities Foundation.

Hundreds of industrial wind turbines are currently proposed for public, private and tribal lands in East County with 400-800 thousand acres of Wind Resource Area proposed for designation in the County's Wind Energy Ordinance & Plan Amendment DEIR.

• Gouged by the Wind Renewable fuel mandates are raising electricity prices in the states. 
• Obama makes his case for another term
• Should Mitt Romney worry about Ron Paul? (Christian Science Monitor)
• How Ron Paul could mess with Romney at the GOP convention (Bloomberg)
• Key 9-11 suspects to appear in court (BBC)
• CIA thwarts new underwear bomb plot by al Qaeda (CBS)
• U.N.:  U.S. should give back stolen lands to Indian tribes (UK Guardian)
• U.S. unemployment falls to 8.1 percent, economy adds 115,000 new jobs (RawStory)
• Wind farms warming Texas (Discovery News)

• Thousands rejoice as Japan shuts off nuclear power (NPR)
• Socialists celebrate as French vote nears close (Reuters)
• Socialist Hollande in, Sarkozy out as France elects new president (CNN)
• Greek’s governing parties lose majority at polls (BBC)
• Putin returns to presidency in a changed Russia (UT San Diego)
• Rupert Murdoch declared unfit to lead: The price of half-truths? (Christian Science Monitor)
• Running blind: Chinese activist’s dramatic escape (UT San Diego/AP)
• Ahmadinejad’s support crumbles in Iran runoff (UT San Diego)
• The sorry lessons of green power subsidies (Globe and Mail)
• Antarctic ice melting from below – video (Christian Science Monitor)

May 17, 2012 (Ocotillo) –Robert Lundahl spotted these signs posted by residents and environmentalists, who are mobilizing to inform the public about negative impacts of the proposed Ocotillo Express wind energy facility.

Losses can be up to 40%; values affected 3 miles from turbine sites

By Billie Jo Jannen

For East County Magazine

  Part II in ECM’s exclusive report on the Ocotillo Express Wind project, a joint investigation with ABC 10 News. (See the 10 News portion of this investigation, a report on environmental impacts of the project here:     10 News text: http://www.10news.com/news/30776233/detail.html; 10 News video: http://www.10news.com/video/30776306/index.html)

“To have the Governor’s office tell our park officials NOT to comment on Ocotillo,  OR ANY OTHER alternative energy projects adjacent to the Park, is a travesty, a violation of the trust between the citizens and the state.” – Mark Jorgensen, retired Superintendent, Anza Borrego Desert State Park in an e-mail to ECM

 “These allegations are not true.   No such directive came from the the Governor’s Office or the California Natural Resources Agency saying that State Parks could not comment on the Ocotillo Wind Express Project. “ -- Richard Stapler, Deputy Secretary for Communications, California Natural Resources Agency

By Miriam Raftery

March 27, 2012 (Anza-Borrego) – The former Superintendent of the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park (ABDSP) has contacted East County Magazine to allege a cover-up by the State Parks Department and the Governor of serious impacts that the proposed Ocotillo Express wind project would have on our largest state park and its natural resources.  The proposed wind project shares a five-mile border with ABSP and if approved, would erect up to 155 wind turbines each 456 feet tall—some just yards from the park.

How many massive energy projects are too many for one rural community to absorb?

“They want to put these all out here, because we’re throwaway country people.” – Howard Cook

By Mia Myklebust and Miriam Raftery

February 16, 2012 (Jacumba) – Walking along the shores of Lake Jacumba, it’s clear that Howard Cook has big dreams for his community.  Chairman of the Lake Restoration Committee, he has wrested a pledge from the Audubon Society to restore the once-dry lake.

“We want to have fishing, boating, and recreation,” he says.  Cook is working with others who dream of “making this another Taos—art, wildlife, hiking, Indians and birds.”

But there’s trouble on the horizon.  Multiple industrial-scale wind and solar farms soon stand to surround this tiny town, jeopardizing its most cherished natural treasures. Sites include publicly owned recreation lands, notably a spectacular scenic gorge known to locals as “our Grand Canyon,” Cook points out.

Jacumba is a proverbial canary in the coal mine—a warning of what other publicly-owned preserves and rural communities across America may soon face. 

December 23 deadline for public comment on County's proposed wind ordinance

By Caleb Trainer

December 12, 2011 (San Diego’s East County)--The eastern portions of San Diego County have become areas for increased interest in wind energy production. In response, County officials are proposing changes to current regulations that, in effect, will make it easier for wind energy development—including both wind farms with large-scale turbines and smaller scale residential windmills.

Can chickens provide early warnings of wind turbine health dangers?

By Miriam Raftery
August 21, 2011 (San Diego’s East County) – Like those proverbial canaries in the coal mine, chickens near wind farms may provide early clues to potential harm to health of humans and animals. That’s the contention of Hamish Cumming, a farmer battling proposed wind turbines near his home in Australia.

He has written a letter to East County Magazine seeking help from people living near wind farms locally (and in other locations) to document cases of shell-less eggs, dead chickens, or other animals that suffer internal hemmorrhaging.