Lisa Linowes and the Disinformation of Industrial Wind Action Group

August 12, 2011 1 Comment

Lisa Linowes is the Founder and Executive Director of Industrial Wind Action Group, a group dedicated to “counteract misleading information” and provide “residents, as well as government officials, the information to make informed decisions” about wind energy projects.

However, the organization routinely promotes discredited problems and messengers instead of credible sources.  On their website, the Industrial Wind Action Group links to articles and information from sources whose work is unscientific or has been linked to the fossil fuel industry – rather than objective sources that could help residents and government officials make informed decisions.  According to our investigative research, the Industrial Wind Action Group continues to hype anti-wind rhetoric above reality.

Promotes Discredited “Problems”

Claim Reality
Wind energy installations cause “Wind Turbine Syndrome” by Nina Pierpont Discredited by panel of scientists and medical professionals including a professor of audiology (Expert Panel Review, 2009)
Birds populations are disproportionately affected by wind turbines Most construction including housing and skyscrapers impact bird populations. Wind’s impact on bird populations is much less than traditional energy sources, with coal being the largest risk to wildlife (New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, 2009)
The Shadow Flicker caused by spinning turbine blades are causing health problems Expert panel for the National Academy of Sciences found shadow flicker to be harmless to humans (National Research Council, 2007)
Property Values decrease because of wind energy facilities Wind energy facilities were found to have no evidence of widespread impacts on home property values (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 2009)

“Experts” tied to the Fossil Fuel Industry

“Expert” Tied to
Andrew P. Morriss

  • Senior Scholar at the Mercatus Institute
  • Senior Fellow at the Institute for Energy Research
  • Mercatus Institute: $1.44 million in funding from 1999-2006 from Koch Industries, a major fossil fuel conglomerate.
  • Institute for Energy Research: over $300,000 from Exxon Mobil since 1998, funding from other coal and oil companies
Glenn Schleede

  • former Vice President of the New England Electric System
  • former Senior Vice President of the National Coal Association.
  • New England Electric System: recently acquired by the National Grid, it is the largest natural gas distributor in the Northeast
  • National Coal Association: now known as the National Mining Association, it represents the coal industry in Washington, D.C.
Robert Bryce

  • Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute
  • Former Fellow at the Institute for Energy Research
  • Manhattan Institute: significant funding from the Koch Family Foundations and over $50,000 in 2009 from Exxon Mobil.
  • Institute for Energy Research: over $300,000 from Exxon Mobil since 1998, funding from other coal and oil companies
Robert Bradley

  • Adjunct Scholar, Cato Institute
  • Adjunct Scholar, Competitive Enterprise Institute
  • CEO and Founder, Institute for Energy Research

 
  • Cato Institute: founded by Charles Koch, CEO and Chairman of Koch Industries, a major fossil fuel conglomerate and supported by the Charles G. Koch Foundation.
  • Competitive Enterprise Institute: funding from the Koch Family Foundations and oil companies including Texaco and Amoco (now owned by BP)
  • Institute for Energy Research: over $300,000 in funding from Exxon Mobil since 1998, funding from other coal and oil companies

Not Fulfilling The Mission

The Industrial Wind Action Group states its mission is to “counteract misleading information” and to “provid[e] residents, as well as government officials, the information to make informed decisions.”  Unfortunately, the sources routinely cited on www.windaction.org spread misleading information and promote fossil fuel talking points through purportedly neutral third party sources.

Filed under Profiles

Nina Pierpont: Discredited Time and Time Again

June 10, 2011 4 Comments

Nina Pierpont is a pediatrician and an opponent of wind turbines. In a 2009 book she authored, Pierpont invented the term, “Wind Turbine Syndrome.”

Since then, Pierpont’s theories have been widely discredited by the scientific community, which points to severe flaws in her research methodology and lack of statistical validity, among other problems.

We pulled together the five major flaws in Pierpont’s theory about wind turbines:

Experts dispute the premise of Pierpont’s theory.

  • A panel of medical doctors, audiologists and acoustical professionals – including Dr. Robert J. McCunney of MIT – concluded, “There is no evidence that the sounds, nor the sub-audible vibrations, emitted by wind turbines have any direct adverse physiological effects on humans.“ (Expert Panel Review, 2009)

Pierpont used a sample size that was not valid.

  • Pierpont’s study included just 38 people in 5 counties who at some point lived near wind turbines. “[N]o conclusions on the health impact of wind turbines can be drawn from Pierpont’s work due to methodological limitations including small sample size, lack of exposure data, lack of controls and selection bias.” (Dr. Arlene King, Ontario Chief Medical Officer of Health, 2010)

Pierpont did not see her “subjects” in person nor did she medically examine them.

Pierpont’s work was not properly peer reviewed.

  • Pierpont’s work was never properly peer reviewed, as she claims. Instead, “she showed [her work] to people she selected and then published some of their responses, including that by Oxford University’s Lord Robert May, whose subsequent public silence on the issue may suggest a re-think.”Without proper peer review, it is difficult if not impossible to assess the validity of claimed scientific findings. (Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council, 2010)

There were no recorded complaints from anyone else.

  • There is no record of complaints or symptoms of so-called “Wind Turbine Syndrome” from owners of the land on which the turbines actually sit. (TreeHugger, 2011)

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