LOCATION/TYPE

NEWS HOME

[ exact phrase in "" • results by date ]

[ Google-powered • results by relevance ]


Archive
RSS

Add NWW headlines to your site (click here)

Get weekly updates

WHAT TO DO
when your community is targeted

RSS

RSS feeds and more

Keep Wind Watch online and independent!

Donate via Paypal

Donate via Stripe

Selected Documents

All Documents

Research Links

Alerts

Press Releases

FAQs

Campaign Material

Photos & Graphics

Videos

Allied Groups

Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005.

News Watch Home

Conservation group joins fight against wind farm 

Credit:  April 11, 2015 | www.myeasternshoremd.com ~~

CENTREVILLE – Queen Anne’s Conservation Association April 1 initiated action in opposition to the Apex Energy Wind Turbine project for 49 500-foot industrial wind turbines near Kennedyville between scenic route MD 213 and the Chester River. QACA filed a Public Information Act request with the Kent County Government seeking disclosure of more information about the project and its developer.

QACA Executive Director Jay Falstad stated: “In filing our PIA request, we are taking a first step to join with Washington College, the citizens of Keep Kent Scenic, and the Kent County Commissioners themselves in their unanimous opposition to this almost unbelievable project. The proposed field of turbines, with their 164-foot blades atop 333-foot pylons, will put multiple skyscraper-tall structures into the undeveloped lands of the Eastern Shore, thereby despoiling a historic landscape, creating a wall of destruction for migrating birds, and impinging on the skyscapes of Queen Anne’s and other neighboring counties. We cannot let this happen.”

Falstad attended a meeting on March 21, organized by Keep Kent Scenic ((http://keepkentscenic.org/Industrial_Wind_Turbines_Proposed_for_Kent_County.html0 and learned that the project, because it was subject to permitting by the Maryland Public Service Commission, apparently did not need to conform to the Kent County Comprehensive Plan and zoning laws that protect farmland from heavy industrial development.

Afterward, Falstad was able to secure a copy of the APEX Land Lease and Wind Easement agreement that a handful of landowners have already entered into.

“This lease is about as one-sided as I’ve ever seen,” said Falstad. “Essentially, the landowner is handing over control of his property to APEX – or whoever APEX ultimately sells its rights to.

“Take the provision [1.2(c)], for example, where the landowner grants APEX an easement to ‘generate electromagnetic, audio, flicker, visual, view, light, noise, vibration, air turbulence, wake, electrical, radio interference, shadow or other effects attributable to the Facilities or any other operational or development activities.’ That says that if you find your property has become a place where human beings can no longer live safely and comfortably, and therefore isn’t saleable, don’t complain to us, you agreed to it.

“Same thing with farming the property: once the turbines are up, the lease says that APEX ‘shall not be responsible to pay Owner any losses of income, rent, business opportunities, profits or other losses arising out of Owner’s inability to grow crops or otherwise use the portion of the Property occupied by Wind Facilities pursuant to this lease’ (Sec. 6.2).”

“This environmentally destructive project,” Falstad continued, “has nothing to do with good alternative forms of electric power generation, like solar, but instead is a reckless grab for federal subsidies for a thoroughly bad project in a totally inappropriate place. And because the APEX lease is so invasive to the landowner’s property rights, getting people to sign these leases amounts to federally subsidized takings of farmland.

“Like the massive federal anti-terrorism training facility proposed for Ruthsburg in Queen Anne’s County a few years ago, this project would destabilize and devalue rural land in the whole Mid-Shore region. We fought that one off, and now we are gearing up to stand with the leaders and citizens of Kent County in fighting this project with everything we have.”

Source:  April 11, 2015 | www.myeasternshoremd.com

This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.

Wind Watch relies entirely
on User Funding
   Donate via Paypal
(via Paypal)
Donate via Stripe
(via Stripe)

Share:

e-mail X FB LI TG TG Share


News Watch Home

Get the Facts
CONTACT DONATE PRIVACY ABOUT SEARCH
© National Wind Watch, Inc.
Use of copyrighted material adheres to Fair Use.
"Wind Watch" is a registered trademark.

 Follow:

Wind Watch on X Wind Watch on Facebook

Wind Watch on Linked In Wind Watch on Mastodon