The Political Page, T+300 -- November 17, 2017

Updates

Later, 2:36 p.m. Central Time: see first comment. It is easy to "verify" the comments regarding health risks associated with wind farm noise. A simple google search (altered cortical and subcortical connectivity) will yield 426,000 hits regarding the wind noise issue, about 420,000 more hits than necessary for most lawyers.

Original Post

 

A second reader alerted me to this story so I will post it. I'm trying to minimize my comments on global warming and renewable energy since I feel I am preaching to the choir, but when multiple readers alert me to same article, I figure there is enough reason to post it, at least for the archives.

From the [Minneapolis/St Paul] StarTribune, "wind project in southern Minnesota gets pushback." The opposition has already gotten half the project built in Iowa. As the reader noted, Minnesotans appear to like wind energy but not in their immediate backyard. Iowa is as close as many Minnesotans want renewable energy. Apparently, some in Minnesota see the light: there is not one redeemable aspect to wind energy, as we've said before.

Wind farms commonly generate some local antipathy as they grow both in number and economic importance to the energy industry, but the Freeborn project has sparked a higher level of opposition. It has been intense enough to prompt Freeborn Wind’s developer, Invenergy, to move more than half the project — 58 turbines — across the border to Iowa.

“Iowa loves it,” said Dan Litchfield, senior manager for Chicago-based Invenergy, which is developing Freeborn Wind for Xcel Energy. As far as state permitting, “the Iowa portion of the project is done,” Litchfield said. In Minnesota, Freeborn Wind has sparked a fight before the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC).

There are issues over the proximity of wind turbines to some houses. And opponents of the project are concerned about unwanted noise, potential health effects, visual pollution and declining property values.

Litchfield said it’s a “myth” that wind farms can cause ill health, and the Freeborn project will “comply with the law” as far as noise levels and distances between houses and turbines.

Both sides agree one on matter: Poor perception of an existing wind farm in Freeborn County, the Bent Tree project north of Albert Lea, has helped spark opposition to Freeborn Wind.

The more rural folks see wind farms in California, Kansas, and Oregon, the more they will try to stop wind farms in their area.