March 9, 2012
Illinois, Letters

Many reasons to ‘just say no’ to wind farms

Sue McGinn, Tampico www.saukvalley.com 9 March 2012

OK, I’m cold and politically incorrect, but I don’t give a rat’s behind whether jobs are lost because of the government cutting subsidies for wind farms. We’re paying to put up those monstrosities with our tax money. Personally, I’d rather pay the workers’ welfare and not be subjected to the additional insult of being forced to pay to have my health and peace of mind destroyed.

Remember the old television series “Dragnet?” “Just the facts, ma’am.” Well, I’m going to give you some – again.

Turbines must have wind to work. They can’t generate electricity when there is too much and they have to shut down – or, when there is none at all. Natural gas or coal-fueled plants must stay online to pick up the slack. After 20 years of subsidies, wind energy has not replaced one traditional power plant.

They interfere with reception – not only television and radio, but radar. I wouldn’t want to be the weather person who must make the decision that the “interference” seen on the screen is caused by a turbine and not a tornado.

They are subject to lightning strikes. What kind of power surge would go through your house if that happens? They can leak oil, catch fire, throw ice or flaming debris up to 1,500 feet (and our know-it-all “little panels” want them 1,400 feet from our homes). How safe is it to farm land near them? They kill bats and birds by the thousands.

A Denmark, Wis., couple abandoned their home of 30 years because they couldn’t live with the low-frequency noise produced by a half-dozen, 495-foot-high turbines – the closest was 3,200 feet away. They experienced “headaches, ear pain, nausea, blurred vision, anxiety, memory loss, and overall unsettledness.”

See www.akdart.com/wind.html for 150-plus links to see why to “just say no.”


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/03/09/many-reasons-to-just-say-no-to-wind-farms/