Grassroots rising against big government wind - SL

“Grassroots Rising Against Big Government Wind” (Fulton Township MI and Fulton County IN say No) A companion piece was published in Master Resource May 4th 2022 By: Sherri Lange

“We may jeopardize this community”, says Commissioner Bryan Lewis, referencing a vote on wind turbines. “Although the monetary gain could be big, money’s not the most important factor to consider. We have quality of life to consider,” (Fulton

County Indiana) “In case you can’t get there,” Fulton Township, MI, hosts friendly Food With Friends events: a sample of which is tantalizingly here. This is Rural America, friendly and welcoming, the heartbeat.

Food with Friends - Sloppy Joe/Bun, Potato Rounds, Kyoto Vegetable, Apple Slices

Monday, April 25 - 11:30 am Food with Friends - BBQ Meatballs, Redskin Potatoes, California Veggies, Rice Pudding, Wheat Bread Wednesday, April 27 - 11:30 am Food with Friends - Corn Chowder, Hard Cooked Eggs, Peas, Peaches, Bread Stick Friday, April 29 - 11:30 am Food with Friends - Sloppy Joe/Bun, Potato Rounds, Kyoto Vegetable, Apple Slices The face of Fulton Township is also discerning and wise: A Fulton Township agenda item on April 20th, proves historic: A full house for a near-four-hour meeting. It seems that quality of life and neighborly commitment tops the financial offerings by Heartland Wind.

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The Fulton Township Board will hold a special meeting scheduled for Wednesday, April 20th, 2022 at 7:00 pm. The purpose for the meeting is to (1) Deliberate on a special land use permit (our emphasis) application submitted by Heartland Farms Wind Project, LLC, by its authorized agent Invenergy, LLC, that requests approval of a Utility Scale Wind Farm/Commercial WECS The highly charged and interested public did attend, about 100, and 20 more virtually. The Fulton Township Board of Trustees voted unanimously against the township’s planning commission to allow the Heartland Wind Project, links in a chain of turbine projects, 84 sites and 72 turbines throughout Fulton, Washington, Newark, New Haven, North Shade and North Star Townships.

Invenergy, a Chicago based wind promoter/developer, now has to return to the drawing board. See this link.

Seeing the wrinkle in the Envenergy master plan ● All townships except Washington have held public meetings.

The New Haven Township Planning Commission approved 27 turbines in mid-February. In mid-March, the Gratiot County Planning Commission approved 29 wind turbines in Newark and North Star townships. A week later, North Shade commissioners also unanimously approved their township for seven turbines. ● Fulton Township’s decision to deny seriously dents the master plan. “No special land use” for you, Heartland.

Opposition Grows, especially in the Midwest (some direct quotes below are from Energy Expert Robert Bryce, who has carefully documented some of the wind and solar projects that communities have rejected.)

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● Much of the opposition is centered in the Midwest , which has the nation’s greatest concentration of turbines. Opponents have banded together to block wind projects in at least half a dozen states, including Nebraska, South Dakota, Indiana and Michigan. Disputes are still being waged in Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois and Maryland. Intense opposition also exists in parts of the Northeast, including Maine, New York and Vermont.

● Dan Litchfield, a senior manager at Invenergy, “one of the world’s largest wind-energy developers,” indicates that “A lot of people tell me they like the look of wind turbines,” he added. “They find them graceful.” But opponents in signatures garnered by the wind company in South Dakota, Lincoln County, easily defeated a 150 turbine project.

● In Maine, plans to erect turbines atop ridges have outraged people worried about marring the rugged landscape and hurting tourism. The group Friends of Maine’s Mountains has been fighting wind-energy developments in the state Legislature, before regulatory panels and in the courts. It has managed to slow or stop nearly all of the proposals.

● Flash mobbing in Indiana: some claim opponents are well organized and branded, Tee shirted, and pamphleteered.

“Gregg Townsend, the auditor in Tipton County, Indiana … said activists would “gin up anger and frustration” in many counties. “He blames them for stopping wind projects in Tipton and at least six other Indiana counties.”

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The decision, UNANIMOUS, to deny Heartland Wind the total access needed for its master plan, speaks to the growing foment of angst and anger against pocket heavy developers.

Across the US, a cascade of opposition.

We congratulate the residents of Fulton Township, MI, and applaud Melissa Zemla, Treasurer, Chad Marecek, Clerk, and Trustees Robert Baxter and Michael Oberlitner.

CASH AND TAX INCENTIVES, but the fairy dust comes off for rural America Let’s remind ourselves that rural America counts for one in five Americans. It is intertwined with urban dwellers and generates 10% or more of the Gross Domestic Product.

It is also experiencing lack of recovery from the 2008 recession, lack of access to jobs, some communities truly marginalized in poverty. Some communities lack access to medical services or the internet. (These distinctions are broad generalizations, as some rural communities are semi urban, with their own set of lack of opportunities and challenges.)

BIG WIND targets areas or residents it senses are weaker, more prone to accepting zoning changes, increased acceptance of a system of perks, which are really miniscule compared to the profit taking. Big wind offers cash strapped communities park areas, perhaps improved roads (for a time), and other incentives for their presence and disruption.

Fulton Township times two

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With clarity and superb reasoning, Fulton Township MI Landowner Lynn Plummer-Studebaker outlined her concerns with the proposed wind turbine project: from her letter to the Editor of the Hoopeston Chronicle, Herald Journal. …science from around the world has proven that the noise and infrasound produced by the turbines proposed are more than an annoyance; it has been declared by the World Health Organization as an adverse health effect.

Further numerous studies have found that up to 30-40% of people are sensitive to this kind of modulating noise and that people do not become desensitized to this noise. In fact, they become more sensitive over time and longer range adverse health effects arise.

Just as Marshall County, with a ban on industrial wind turbines, had their eyes on neighboring Fulton County as we battled wind development, Fulton County’s eyes are on you. We are watching as your officials sift through mountains of data and weigh the detriments of wind energy against the lure of money promised to the county — a sum they will see only a fraction of when the wind company demands a huge tax abatement. I attended the latest Pulaski Plan Commission meeting. Pulaski officials are being asked to hire the accounting firm Umbaugh and Associates to determine how much money the county might receive with this project. At a public meeting in Fulton County, Umbaugh and Associates presented the numbers for the project. We learned the savings for the average homeowner was about $150 a year on their property taxes; about the equivalent of a couple of tanks of gas for all of the trouble wind turbines can cause homeowners forced to live near them.

This company has left behind problems for communities including noise, shadow flicker, sediments in water wells, oil-leaking turbines, excessive bird and bat kills, habitat fragmentation, poorly repaired roads, broken friendships and divided families. You will have to decide if it is all worth it or not.

Meanwhile in FULTON County Indiana, a British wind operative made a play for 133 wind turbines across its township. It was estimated that landowners would get over $90 million.

“However, in a meeting held Nov. 20 (2017), Commissioners Bryan Lewis and Rick Ranstead voted 2-0 to strike down the commercial wind ordinance from the county’s zoning ordinance.

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Lewis said he talked to Fulton County residents who don’t live near the proposed site. They said they didn’t mind the wind farm project but wouldn’t want to live near the turbines. This led Lewis to conclude that residents do not approve of the proposal.

“Why would I want to impose something on the people that very few would want to live close to? Although the monetary gain could be big, money’s not the most important factor to consider. We have quality of life to consider,” Lewis said.

“Being part of a community means getting along, being good neighbors and helping out one another through tough times. I feel if I vote in favor of the current ordinance before us, we may jeopardize this in our community,” he added.

As Robert Bryce reminds us: “Rural America gets bad vibrations from big wind.”

The bottom line is that as noted, people care about their health, their economies, and their rural lives. They fight to preserve clean water, and air, and land use, and health of their pets, livelihoods, and lifestyle.

It’s easy to comprehend growing decisions to protect “community” and a treasured rural life.

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