Encouragement and hope

Source: Friends of the Grande Ronde Valley | Comments, Oregon

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FYI and to encourage and give hope to other communities confronted with a seemingly fruitless battle against wind farms, I offer you an overview of our fight and so far, victory and our new challenge.

Friends of the Grande Ronde Valley (FGRV) gathered together and began its fight against the 161 wind turbines of the proposed Antelope Ridge Wind Farm sometime in late 2009.

With the strong leadership of Dennis and Pamela Wilkerson FGRV was able to fully utilize and direct all the ideas, energies and abilities of our group to wage a determined multi pronged attack to stop the proposed wind farm.

We used yard signs, flyers, bumper stickers, flashing lapel buttons, canvas shopping bags imprinted with our logo, opinion letters, radio interviews, radio ads, a parade float representing the mountain in jeopardy, a full sized billboard on the Columbia Gorge, attendance at city and county meetings, personal meetings with local officials, lobbying State legislators while personally presenting them with boxes of homemade fudge, appeals to any and all officials, contact with regional think tanks, public utility meeting discussions, community meetings, banner waving at local events and businesses, a newsletter and a website. Membership was free but we passed the hat to build our war chest.

FGRV was able to meet with other groups and work unilaterally to attain important resources and information. We concentrated on our agreements, not on our differences. Our committees were manned with several experts in complex fields along with a legislative analyst that trudged through the bureaucracies and legal documents. No one was left without a useful task.

Finally we received notice that “EDP withdraws Antelope Ridge Wind Farm application 9-17-13”. Did that homemade fudge turn the tide???

Is the fight over? No. There will always be another wind project in the wings. We are now in a coalition with StopB2H to prevent a proposed transmission line in our neck of the woods, hills and valleys. This proposed transmission line makes the way for more wind turbines somewhere along its route. The need for the B2H (Boardman to Hemingway) transmission line is not evident in the Idaho Power Company’s stats. So, we continue.