Turbines will ruin land for generations 

The comments over the weekend from juwi Wind CEO Michael Rucker that the Prairie Breeze industrial wind turbine project will spur economic development and keep young families from moving out of Tipton County were ridiculous.

He must think that we are rubes who will fall for his propaganda. Prairie Breeze will not create jobs here, nor will potential home buyers think Tipton County is just a peachy-keen place to live.

The proposed Prairie Breeze industrial turbine project in Prairie and Liberty townships and others that will follow will ruin Tipton County for generations to come.

These turbines – 500-foot behemoths that are a danger to the health and safety of Tipton County residents – will do nothing to promote economic development.

To the contrary, they will destroy Tipton County’s agricultural nature and ensure that what little growth there has been here will atrophy.

Much of what juwi Wind has put out about these industrial turbines have been outright lies or come from sketchy “studies” promoted by wind turbine interests.

I urge all Tipton County residents to show the Board of Zoning Appeals their opposition to this industrial project by wearing white during the BZA meeting at 5 p.m. today in the Tipton High School auditorium. This is a matter of life or death for Tipton County. Anyone who says otherwise is a fool.

Bob Ashley, Tipton

Greed of few will cost others money

I live on the Howard County side, about eight-tenths of a mile from the west end of the proposed wind farm, and you might say I have no right to voice my opinion. But in fact, all homeowners and taxpayers should be worried.

First of all, windmills produce the highest-priced electricity. Without the federal government subsidy, people couldn’t afford it.

If it was such a good thing, why didn’t we use them 50 years ago?

Windmills were great to pump water in the remote Plains States where power lines couldn’t be run. If it is such a great deal, why don’t private banks loan their money instead of using tax dollars to build them? Do you really think the tax money will ever get paid back? Look at the track record of Obama’s investing in Al Gore’s green energy; it hasn’t worked, has it?

Who will pay to take them down when the fad runs its course? It won’t be the ones collecting the rent. It will be the taxpayers.

For the ones collecting the rent, they will have a gain, but every one else within miles on both sides will suffer loss on their property.

People say it will create jobs, but it would be nothing compared to what clean coal and natural gas would create.

The winners are China, the German companies and the ones collecting rent. The losers are homeowners for miles on both sides, taxpayers, wildlife and everybody who doesn’t like to look at them.

Did the Tipton County Council even check with other areas in the United States to see if they would have let them in if they could do it all over?

Probably not.

It all boils down to the greed of a few that will cost others a lot of money and aggravation of having to look and listen to those oversized rector sets.

Last of all, the windmills are so overstated with what they will produce, they would never come close to producing what the U.S. needs. So why not put the money in plants that will take care of the future needs and not to mess up the landscape and the farm fields?

Imran Malik brought up a point: How can property that is zoned agricultural be used for industrial purposes without being rezoned?

Keep in mind, farmers, for you to collect your rent money, others will have to be losers.

Robert E. Smith, Russiaville