By Sherri Lange – May 4, 2022
“Krista Kester of the countryside [Nebraska] said the noise, visual light and lower land values she expected with the proposed wind farm would devastate the countryside where her family built a house about 20 years ago. “I spend almost all of my time when the weather permits outside, I mean I’m a girl outside, it’s just me and the notion of that is gone, you know, really worrying.”
– Excerpted from Dan Swanson, “Protest Rises Against Giant Windmill Turbines” Nebraska News ChannelApril 26, 2022.
It’s a quintessential American Midwestern town that, among other things, hosts Dining event with friends. The last thing neighboring countries want is the politics needed by a government-sanctioned project that has a negative effect on their economy and even their health.
A four-hour meeting this April 20 of the Fulton (Nebraska) Town Council discussed the granting of a special land use permit application for the Heartland Farms Wind Project, comprising 84 sites. and 72 turbines in Fulton, Washington, Newark, New Haven, North Shade and North Star Townships.
The Town of Fulton Board of Trustees unanimously voted against the utility-scale wind farm, which is good news for a majority of more than 100 participants. The project’s parent company, Invenergy, a wind developer/promoter based in Chicago, is Back to the drawing.
Bryce: 328 Reject Project
The macro picture of the project push of government-approved wind and solar projects was captured by leading energy journalist/researcher Robert Bryce. “This morning, I published one piece in Forbes which includes the latest updates to the Replica Denial Database,” he wrote.
I am forced to write this piece because major media outlets continue to ignore, or mitigate, anger in rural America about the encroachment of major renewable projects…. The Otoe County vote is the fifth rejection in 2022. It also marks 328order time that government agencies from Maine to Hawaii have denied or limited the wind [and solar] project since 2015….
… You won’t hear about these hundreds of disclaimers from the Sierra Club. You also won’t read about it in New York Times although the resistance to encroachment of large renewable projects is common, and a lot of New York communities are rejecting wind and solar energy projects…. You also won’t hear about widespread resistance to renewables on National Public Radio, as I explained in a March 7 article for Quillettehas been publishing pro-wind propaganda masquerading as news.
You also won’t hear about it from academics at elite universities like Princeton, Stanford, and University of Texaswho are producing complex net-zero models that require the deployment of large amounts of wind power capacity.
Bryce continued:
- Much of the opposition is concentrated in the Midwest, which has the largest concentration of turbines in the country. Opponents have rallied together to block wind projects in at least half a dozen states, including Nebraska, South Dakota, Indiana and Michigan. Disputes are still underway in Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois and Maryland. Strong opposition also exists in parts of the Northeast, including Maine, New York, and Vermont.
- Dan Litchfield, senior manager of Invenergy, “one of the largest wind energy developers in the world,” points out that “Many people tell me they like the look of wind turbines,” he added. “They find them graceful.” But rivals in terms of signatures obtained by wind companies in South Dakota, Lincoln County, easily beat a 150 turbine project.
- In Maine, there is a plan to build a turbine on top of a mountain angered people with worries about damaging the rugged landscape and hurting the tourism industry. The Friends of Maine’s Mountains group has fought against wind energy development in the state Legislature, before regulators and the courts. It has managed to slow down or stop almost all suggestions.
- Lightning in Indiana: some contend that the competition is well-organized and branded, Tee avoids and is well-equipped. “Gregg Townsend, auditor in Tipton County, Indiana… said activists will ‘spark anger and frustration’ in many counties. He blames them for stopping wind projects in Tipton and at least six other Indiana counties.”
Inference
The unanimous decision to deny Heartland Wind all of the access needed for its master plan speaks to growing fury and anger towards developers pocketing tax dollars.
Congratulations to the residents of Fulton Township, and welcome to Melissa Zemla, Treasurer, Chad Marecek, Secretary, and Commissioners Robert Baxter and Michael Oberlitner. Like Robert Bryce remind us: “Rural America is shaken by high winds.” The bottom line is, with that said, people care about their health, their economy and their rural life.
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