August 19, 2015
Illinois

More answers needed on wind turbine plans

Herald & Review | August 19, 2015 | herald-review.com

I attended the recent zoning hearing on the matter of the Twin Forks Wind Farm, a subsidiary of E. ON, the American unit of Germany’s largest utility company, being proposed for the Maroa, Warrensburg-Latham area. While the newspaper covered it briefly, I have many unanswered questions.

First, while E. ON stated they will have buyers for the power produced, it was later verified that they did not have any purchase power agreements. Why is that? Second, a number of residents asked for more information on the risks and problems associated with living near the turbines. Their questions were not answered at the hearing and are only partially addressed, if at all, in the application. Exhibits submitted do not provide answers.

Residents asking questions were told loudly, many times by E. ON’s lawyer; “There is no risk.” Property values will not be affected, noise is not a problem, flickering and other health issues just don’t exist. I find that very interesting when there are a number of current lawsuits pending in multiple states and documented studies by experts that say otherwise.

Logan County, for one, has recently acknowledged some of these very problems in their hearings and they are making changes to mitigate. Why are we not getting answers to the same questions when our wind farm is even bigger and more dense (140 towers in 24,000 acres) than their wind farm (80 towers in 23,000 acres)?

Why is E.ON not going public with all their information and supplying the news to all? Why were only selected homeowners and landowners contacted personally? Why did these contracted individuals have to agree specifically to not share publicly anything about the project? Why was that important to E. ON?

I think we deserve answers before our county approves their application.

Phyllis Ruwe

Maroa


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2015/08/19/more-answers-needed-on-wind-turbine-plans/