Huron County commissioners sold us out on wind turbines
By Community Voice | Bay City Times Letters, www.mlive.com 1 November 2011
By Community Voice | Bay City Times Letters, www.mlive.com 1 November 2011
Aldous Huxley said, “Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.”
Our Commissioners have sold us out again. The people, the wildlife, the landscape and environment of Huron County will pay the price, and it will happen like a movie in slow motion.
As more 500 behemoths are erected across the terrain, more people will suffer the documented harm, migration patterns of raptors and waterfowl will be altered, wildlife patterns will change and our county will look like a large industrial site with spinning blades visible in all directions during daylight hours; red blinking lights at dark.
RES Americas will site their turbines 1,640 feet from homes, their turbines will be 100 feet taller than existing turbines, which proportionally results in no difference in setback.
The sad irony of this whole situation is that the facts of wind energy are known. It does not reduce CO2 emissions; it is an unreliable, very expensive, inefficient source of energy; it has an incredibly large footprint when compared to other sources of energy and it does more harm than good.
Independent, reliable scientific and medical studies are available which document these facts. Why have our commissioners ignored these and catered to the wind developers and minority of Huron County residents who are leaseholders?
As more of these turbines begin running, more people will experience the harm. Maybe the next lawsuit will be filed against Huron County and its officials for negligence…they have been given a wealth of credible information and yet they have continued to stamp their approval. The Huron County Planning Commissioners have also been given such information which they completely ignored, choosing to believe, instead, the words of the developers; hook, line and sinker.
A lawsuit or many lawsuits will not undo the damage and will only cause more hard feelings in the years to come, but it appears that the only thing our elected and appointed officials understand is money. Why else would they have sold out Huron County?
Louis J. Colletta, Port Austin
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/11/01/huron-county-commissioners-sold-us-out-on-wind-turbines/