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Wind farms and community liability
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We heard just how specious the analogy is comparing windmills to oil wells – they are “apples and oranges”.
This is not “farming” – it is “industrialization” So lets look at some possible consequences.
Community liability for a wind farm should be the greatest concern for local governments that allow wind turbines to be placed near residences.
Testimony by attorneys at a local Zoning Commission meeting, as both citizens and advocates, raised exactly this concern.
The Texas Cattle Raisers Association – a group of farmers considering just this type of project for their own property – concluded, quote:
“No state agency or other public entity has any meaningful authority over the citing of industrial wind power projects. Neither do they have the ability or resources to evaluate the impact on the economy, taxes, electrical rates, wildlife, environment or private land values of adjacent property.”
If the removal of a single tower can cost more than $1,000,000, lets do the math. Count those towers (there seem to be more every day) – it could cost hundreds of millions of dollars to go backwards on this deal once it goes in and eleven thousand acres of our prairie – ELEVEN THOUSAND ACRES ! – will be blighted by this obscene project for eternity.
And if it ever becomes unprofitable for *any reason*, these same landowners can hold the county liable for their removal!
We the citizens of Ellis County! Because we let them do it.
Abandoned towers are full of toxic waste, leaking hydraulic fluids from gearboxes and God knows what else. No one wants to touch these things once they have been decommissioned.
Continued quote:
“The TCRA decided to ask the governor or legislature to establish an independent panel of experts… to evaluate the cumulative effects of industrial wind projects ….so that its conclusions would inform responsible preconstruction planning.”
INDEPENDENT – that’s a very important word.
Where is our independent pre-construction planning report ?
Why is this project sneaking in through the back door ?
Where is the Environmental Impact Report that any responsible government should demand ?
Where are the INDEPENDENT studies to assess the social and economic consequences for all of us ?
They do not exist.
And they do not exist because these corporate opportunists think they have found a way around them. Their cozy little deal is trying to circumvent any reasonable independent assessment of this project’s impact on our community.
The shills of CPV corporation we heard from Wednesday (at the zoning meeting) are just paid to get these things signed up – not to run them. They will sell this deal off to another company, change their name – (so that people like me can’t find them again) – and then move on.
It will be a monumental failure of local government if this project is ever approved.
By J.P. Michaud
March 28, 2007
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