Northern Indiana?
Big Blow rolls into town and make promises to local officials that they have no plan of keeping. They even "help" the local politicos write the wind ordinances.
Several of the officials that ok'd the first (and only) windfarm, were primaried out last year.
Here's coverage from wind-watch.org of a letter from one of the county commissioners that has made the rounds in several communities across the country...
“What happened with our county was, of course, we knew this wind development was probably imminent because of what happened in Benton County. They were the front-runners,” Harper said. “We kind of understood it might be coming … In 2008, Tipton County developed a wind ordinance and it was based on, basically, what Benton County had done. I think, really, Benton County kind of developed the template for wind ordinances in Indiana. They had put this setback of 1,000 feet, and of course, since no one really knew anything about it, everybody kind of adopted that standard 1,000 foot setback.”
“We did our due diligence,” she said. “We visited Benton County, we visited White County. Everything was positive, but we just didn’t understand how a higher population density, with the turbines, how that would affect the people because in those counties, it wasn’t present. So everything we heard was very, very positive.”
“I was personally not for covering the county with wind turbines, like Benton County did. I just didn’t believe everyone in the county would aesthetically want that. A lot of people in our county just like the rural landscape,” Harper said. “I was not opposed to perhaps trying it in one section of the county. The landowners seemed to want it and nobody really knew anything about it, as far as being opposed to it, so we went through the whole process with the public hearings and there was a little resistance, but not really too much. So we went through with it.”
“What people didn’t know or understand was in Benton County, the 1,000-foot setback is probably fine because their population density is only about 25 people per square mile. They’re low. That was really not factored in for counties that higher population densities, because you wouldn’t have known that because you haven’t experienced it yet.
It wasn’t then, until they went up, the people that were close to them that were not participating landowners, the effects they were having were presented to us. Then I realized what we had done to those people that were not participating landowners.
“I heard it all,” she said. “I heard all the spin, that all these claims about property values are bogus, that property values might decline within the first year but then after that, people get used to it. The shadow flicker, oh, at 1,000 feet, that’s not true. The noise, no, if they’re too noisy, we’ll fix it. I heard all that bunk. It just plain isn’t true.
“I have been in those people’s homes. I have been out there and it is a reality,” Harper continued. “I’ve been in their living rooms and I’ve seen it. It’s like, on some of them, back in the ‘70s in a disco, with a strobe light. That is their reality. Those are the things, when the wind companies say all this stuff, it sounds really good, but I know what the reality is, because I know what these people are putting up with.
“The noise, sometimes you can’t hear anything. It’s like a whoosh,” she added. “It depends on what the weather conditions are. Sometimes you’ll drive up next to a tower on a country road and you won’t hear a thing. But other times, it will sound like dogs are barking, or gears are grinding, or it’s an eerie, creepy sound. It just depends on what the weather conditions are. Sometimes, it sounds like if you’re outside and you hear a jet fly over. That’s what it sounds like, except when a jet goes over, it goes over and it goes away. But this stays. It’s constant. It’s that loud roar above you that’s just constant. Those kinds of things will grate on your nerves, and that’s what these people are experiencing. That’s why the setback, to me, of 1,000 feet, is not enough.”
“A half-mile would probably mitigate the shadow flicker,” Harper said. “As far as the aesthetic view, it won’t, because another 1,000 feet for a tower 500 feet tall, you’re going to see it.”
“Knowing now, what it has done to our community, that’s why I’m now so against (wind projects). I have seen how it has torn our community apart, because it pitted neighbors against neighbors, families against families, in this fight over ‘look what you did to me.’ I just felt like there is no amount of money that was worth doing that to personal relationships,” she said. “The reminders of these towers being up for 30 years, that will always be present. In communities, if you have some hot-button issue, it goes away with time, it fades … because people kind of forget. But with (turbines), they are a constant reminder of ‘look what you did to me.’ That’s what I feel so badly about.”
“The other thing that really bothered me about the companies is they say, oh, we’re going to bring 200 construction jobs and 10 permanent jobs, and all this,” Harper said. “Well, guess what? There’s nobody in our county that was qualified to do these 10 permanent jobs, and with the 200 construction jobs, they said it would be 200 local jobs. Now, as a commissioner, if I’m trying to get the best deal for the county, I’m thinking when they say local jobs, it must mean from our county.
“After the project got going, I contacted the representative … and I asked for a list of all the people from Tipton County who got a construction job, who were able to be gainfully employed by this project,” she continued. “There wasn’t really anybody that got a job on this project that was from Tipton County.”
“They’re not really lying, but they’re not telling the whole story, either,”