Comment / By anon.r.mous / Sept. 1, 6:27 a.m.

Ah yes, only in Humboldt County would they have such a problem with transportation. But where are the monster trucks in the story?

Comment / By Jane / Sept. 1, 3:57 p.m.

Um, the real question to ask is whether they are taking watershed rights underneath those mills.

Comment / By just sayin / Sept. 2, 5:27 a.m.

This cracks me up. Humboldters go nuts when someone proposes erecting a cell phone tower. The road-widening project down South has been held up for how many years? How about the Waterfront project? How did this project get approved? I suppose anything labeled “Green” is okay. You want Green, you got it. lmao.

Comment / By Tom Stacy / Sept. 2, 5:50 p.m.

Yes, another easily handled objection to wind energy, leaving less air time to bore down on the cost-benefit analysis. The Emperor is getting chilly, but nobody seems to notice! I wonder what it would be like to live in California, but am sure glad I don’t have to find out!

Comment / By heh / Sept. 3, 9:13 a.m.

So, let’s talk about “Tom Stacy.”

NIMBY, paid troll for Koch bros, or other? Who knows, but it’s safe to say we can easily discard his comment and file under “garbage.”

Comment / By Lorraine Devon Wilke / Sept. 3, 4:44 p.m.

Environmental improvements and green energy are essential to the evolution of our planet, that’s clear. We need to wean ourselves away from fossil fuels and energy sources that are finite and politically complex; that is also true. But those very necessary efforts and noble mission statements cannot come at the “either/or” expense of destroying homes and viable, historical businesses merely for the transportation needs of the well-intended project! That is not only counter-productive to the spirit of environmental responsibility, but it is public relations madness!

Ferndale, CA is a small, very unique town whose entire “hook,” if you will, is its beautifully preserved and lovingly maintained “Victorian Village.” Small streets with picturesque vintage buildings, historic hotels and storefronts, all cared for by its townsfolk and enthusiastically visited by thousands of tourists who enjoy the old-time ambiance and rural charm of this town on the Historic Registry. It is not a generic, monochromatic “freeway town” whose loss would hardly be noticed. It is one of the gems of Humboldt County and, as such, engenders much passion and protection from its citizens.

So tell me, how does it make public relations sense for Shell Oil to even hint at the possibility of using Ferndale as its “road in” to this monstrosity of a project, particularly when the use of that fragile route would erode the Ferndale’s byways, the foundations and historic buildings by virtue of the tons and tons of trucks marauding through there many times a day? And even worse, how does it justify, even the suggestion of destroying one of the oldest and most beloved establishments in town (the Hotel Ivanhoe) and destabilizing the peace of mind of homeowners such as Nancy Trujillo whose home is threatened with destruction? How does Nancy sleep at night imagining the devaluation or loss of her home? I am outraged for her and for any of the others who will now have to live for months before all these “hints” are either enacted or dismissed.

We cannot, in our effort to take advantage of wind energy or any other admirable form of ecologically sound energy, sacrifice entire towns, businesses and deeply valued environments. And we’re not talking about a project that will actually be IN Ferndale; we’re talking about sacrificing Ferndale so the project can simply drive THROUGH there! Madness. There simply has to be another way. And, Shell Oil, it’s your job to figure it out and until you do, you will not have the support of even environmentally conscious people who support the intent, but refuse to accept the Solomon’s Choice you have proposed. There has to be another way…

Comment / By Enraged Environmentalist / Sept. 5, 1:55 p.m.

I was about to write something really, really angry and unreasonable about this ridiculous NIMBY-ism, but I’ll bite my tongue and limit it to one comment:

“We cannot, in our effort to take advantage of wind energy or any other admirable form of ecologically sound energy, sacrifice entire towns, businesses and deeply valued environments.”

Yes, yes we CAN. The entire planet is involved in a war with itself right now. We have two choices: Drastically change our way of life, or take responsibility and deal with the consequences. It’s not going to be easy, it’s not going to be fun, but it’s the only choice.

There was no electric grid when Ferndale was first built, so maybe they want to just turn the power off and go back to those days as a Victorian Village. Or maybe they want to move one of the new generators from the PG&E plant into town.

Six months of construction trucks in an area where there used to be literally thousands of huge logging trucks hauling old-growth redwood trees right through the middle of town is not exactly much of a price to pay in exchange for a third of the county’s energy being supplied without relying on an out-of-area natural gas pipeline that runs directly across an earthquake fault.

Not to mention the fact that we’re due for a magnitude 9 earthquake on the Cascadia Subduction Zone fault some time in the next few decades, at which point it’s quite likely every building not built in the last couple of decades will be a pile of rubble, anyway.

All you need to do is look at what just happened to the east coast, or what’s happening due to the typhoon in Japan right now, to see what the penalty for not doing anything is. The 1964 flood caused incredible damage to the area, and that kind of thing is entirely likely to be a regular occurrence in the next hundred years.

One wind farm isn’t going to stop that from happening, but it’s a necessary step to do our part. If doing my part meant putting up a 2MW wind turbine in my back yard, I would gladly do it.

If Ferndale and the other NIMBY squeaky wheels get this plan scuttled, I will personally boycott the town’s business for the remainder of my days, and encourage everyone else I know to do so as well.

I realize that there are probably plenty of people in Ferndale and the area who aren’t against this plan, or have reasonable, valid concerns, but I did not think it was possible for me to be so angry at a small town in Humboldt County

Comment / By Barbara / Sept. 5, 4:54 p.m.

If all aspects of this project work out, conservation, environmental, etc. and the only hold up is the lack of appropriate roads, how about using those helicoptors that logging companies use to haul out whole trees from steep terain.

Comment / By anon.r.mous / Sept. 8, 6:47 a.m.

If anyone can’t see a problem choppering in long items into a wind prone area…..

Well, I’ll let you think about that for a bit.

Comment / By Ellin Beltz / Sept. 9, 9:26 a.m.

Without thinking, windmills sound very green. However, to sacrifice virgin land on a fault created ridge separating salmonid streams and over flown by marbeled murrlets… to run miles of transmission line through unwilling owners’ yards… to destroy a small town’s roads and businesses… all in the name of “environmentalism” is shallow green, if indeed it can be claimed to be green at all.

To threaten boycott against people whose properties and businesses are at risk for seeking to protect themselves is also shallow and not environmental either.

Environment means “everything which surrounds us.” That’s not only trees and cows, but homes and businesses. I don’t think there many in Ferndale where I live would be against this project if it were adjacent to infrastructure already capable of dealing with it.

However, what no one, including this newspaper has pointed out is that during the entire construction the towns of Petrolia and Honeydew would be isolated. Anyone entering or leaving those towns would be required to drive an extra hour to hour and a half (depending on where you start from) to get to Ferndale or Fortuna.

Now, tell me how causing people to buy all that extra gas, and burn up all that gas to get around the construction which itself is burning a huge amount of fossil fuels, to run that many trucks at 5mph up to the ridge and back down again, tell me how environmental that is?

Maybe the folks in Ferndale have a clearer vision of the long-term profit-making plans this Houston based company has for our area than people who take shots at others, but are too afraid to leave their name.

I’m not a company shill. My name is here. Read anonymous comments with caution, we all know anyone can post anything in an effort to sway editorial or public opinion.

And here’s one more thing Ferndalians know. The whole project is being done, not really for profit - because it is not economical - but for huge Federal Government Subsidies, which we all pay.

So this isn’t economic. This isn’t environmental. Instead, it’s pure corporate greed. And 20 years later when their project is “over,” the local people will be left with the ruins to pick up and the eternal effect on currently undisturbed land.

Don’t fall for shallow green. The green this company represents is the deep, deep green of Federal subsidies, a milk so pure and dark that the average welfare mom is green with envy.