Sir, – In referring to the wind energy lobby's "wind bonanza", Colm McCarthy (October 29th) shows he is well aware of that lobby's boundless appetite for both direct subsidy, via the iniquitous "public service obligation", and indirect support by forcing Eirgrid into the provision of expensive transmission lines.
He fails, however, to take account of the essentially religious fervour that animates the broader green lobby. To the environmentally righteous, no element of non-fossil fuel energy can be anything but good, regardless of its costs or benefits to either the economy or the planet.
This is a mindset that is particularly impervious to reasoned argument. Good luck to Mr McCarthy in trying to convince them that “it has not been demonstrated that further wind capacity on the Irish system is a cost-effective contribution to the pressing problem of climate change”. – Yours, etc,
TOM WEYMES,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.