Dan,

1. I think the estimate of $8,000 per home for solar power is about a factor 
of 8 to 10  low -- estimates for a typical home are $64,000 and up. Cut that 
by 40% if no battery backup is used. Wind energy is apparently one of the 
least expensive sources of electricity (nuclear is about the same but, 
personally, I would prefer a turbine in my back yard to a reactor).

2. 400 Acres being clearcut -- 400 acres is a trivial amount of land even in 
just Garrett County (and the proposals include at least Allegany County). 
The land is basically only on the actual mountain top and in a circle 
surrounding each wind turbine. I would prefer that they just raise the 
height of the turbines about 60 feet and avoid the need to cut trees except 
at the actual installation site, but the acreage is not a major issue nor 
will it be visible except from the air. Logging goes on all the time in 
State forests so the actual harvesting of trees is just 
standard-operating-procedure.

I feel that efforts should go into providing safeguards for migrating birds 
(turn off the turbines at night during Spring and Fall migrations and/or 
monitor for migrating birds with radar) rather than tilting at the wind 
turbines, per se. (Apologies to Cervantes.)

Joe McDaniel
Garrett County