Wind farms’ benefits to communities can be slow or complex, leading to opposition and misinformation
Wind turbines dot the agrarian landscape near Paxton, Ill. Photo by Joshua A. Bickel / The Associated Press
The Associated Press
After NextEra proposed a wind farm in Greeley County, Nebraska two years ago, Robert Bernt, a dairy farm owner in the area, helped to mobilize community members against the idea.
His group held town hall meetings and ran ads on the radio, arguing the wind farm would “fragment” the community, by lowering property values and leaving “decaying blades in our landfills.”
Bernt estimated Greeley is the eighth county where he has fought a wind project. “In every case, people were upset because they felt they weren’t told the truth,” Bernt said.
To Bernt, the truth is that wind developers under-deliver on their economic promises to communities and harm the environment. He said people’s taxes don’t go down, and wind farms take away from an area’s natural beauty, noting rural Nebraska could use a boost in tourism income.
Bernt’s words are an echo of those commonly cited by wind power’s opponents, with arguments often hinging on the idea that wind developers under-deliver on their promises. Unpicking facts from fiction — and the gray area of people’s personal feelings in between — is difficult. And even some local leaders who can see money flowing into government coffers say they had trouble understanding a complex taxing system at first.
While wind power can contribute millions per year to rural communities, an independent Associated Press analysis found, these economic arguments have at times been drowned out by health and safety concerns, as well as accusations that wind is taking away from a local economy in other ways. Local laws effectively blocking wind or solar projects are increasingly common, said Matthew Eisenson, of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University.
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