June 13, 2015
Texas

Brown County residents voice their opinions on wind farms

By Gabriella Hernandez | KTXS | June 12, 2015 | www.ktxs.com

BROWNWOOD, Texas – There’s growing controversy over wind energy coming to Brown County as one wind farm was recently built just outside the border in Comanche County.

People who are against wind farms met to discuss how one might affect the area at the Brown County Republican Women’s luncheon Friday.

“Wind in Brown County does not produce much electricity, it produces a lot of production tax credit and none of that … stays in the county,” Dr. Paul Burns, who owns land in May, said in his speech at the luncheon.

KTXS spoke to the construction site manager of the Comanche wind farm, Steve Miller, about the benefits of wind farms in March.

“It will be an economic benefit to the county through taxes and school taxes,” Miller said.

However, landowner Jeff Tucker doesn’t agree.

“Basically it gets down to about $60,000 to $61,000 a year that the community will be getting in Blanket school district and that’s not a windfall, especially when you look at the $100 million they are saving,” Tucker said.

Wind farm supporter Joe Guidry said that many people think their property value will decrease if you can see turbines from their land. Guidry asked the appraisal district about this and they told him that turbine visuals do not affect property value.

“They [the appraisal district] didn’t even want to discuss it because they claim that as far as they are aware no devaluation of property exists simply because they are adjacent to existing wind farms,” Guidry said.

“I think there are some areas where wind works,” Tucker said. “Obviously here in Brown County and Comanche County it’s a low wind zone so they only have about 12 mile per hour wind and the industry standard is normally 15 miles per hour.”

The Comanche County wind farm is the only farm close to Brown County at this time.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2015/06/13/brown-county-residents-voice-their-opinions-on-wind-farms/