August 8, 2011
California

Residents protest wind turbines in Pioneertown

By Adrianna Weingold, KMIR6 News, www.kmir6.com 7 August 2011

They’re only wind testing sites now, but these sprawling mesas in Pioneertown and Pipes Canyon could soon be home to wind turbines. Something residents are against.

“Everybody loves this land,” resident Elyzabeth Turvey said. “I don’t want to see this happen here, I know there has to be a source for green energy but there’s nothing green about this. The only thing green about this is lining somebody’s pocket.

On Saturday afternoon, hundreds of people rallied to keep developer Element Power from installing wind turbines on Black Lava Butte and Flat Top Mesa.

“We feel that its taking over the mesa’s these beautiful mesas which have indian sacred land on top and its going to interfere with all the desert life the beauty, the people, children and other living things,” said resident Randy Green.

The Oregon based renewable energy developer leased the land from the Bureau of Land Management and installed wind testing equipment on both mesa’s with the possibility of installing wind turbines on 3,920 acres.

“There are better ways to generate green power, alternative power then putting a large alien force of windmills that would decimate the area on to a beautiful area that is so rich with flora and fauna,” Cherry Good said.

She’s leading the fight against the wind turbines and says their construction would ruin the natural habitat.

“The flora and fauna would never recover,” Good said. Pipes Canyon basically would turn from a beautiful canyon, peaceful, very rural, full of native species into something that none of us would recognize.”

Element Power will be testing the mesa’s for wind strength for the next one to two years. There is no guarantee that they will ask to move forward with wind turbines.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/08/08/residents-protest-wind-turbines-in-pioneertown/