| Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005. |
Huron County voters will decide whether to expand wind turbines
Credit: By Steve Carmody | Michigan Radio | May 1, 2017 | michiganradio.org ~~
Translate: FROM English | TO English
Translate: FROM English | TO English
The future of wind turbines in Huron County goes before voters Tuesday.
The county already has the largest number of turbines in Michigan, with 475 turbines already operating.
Tuesday’s ballot questions would open the door to another hundred or more.
That’s not what farmer Robert Gaffke wants.
He raises cattle and sheep on his 200-acre organic farm in Port Hope. Gaffke doesn’t have any turbines on his property, but says the turbines are slowly spilling across the property line on his neighbor’s land. The blades make a noticeable wooshing sound.
Gaffke feels the turbines are ruining his county’s quality of life in general, and in his life in particular.
“It’s devalued my property,” says Gaffke, “I don’t know who would want to live next to a turbine.”
Gaffke and others have been running a shoestring campaign to defeat the two proposals on Tuesday’s ballot to expand the number of turbines that can be built.
But supporters of the expansion have been running TV and radio ads.
Many Huron County residents like the jobs and millions of dollars in tax revenues the turbines bring.
Dean Avola owns the Clean Green Bean café in Bad Axe. He says this is about the future of Huron County.
“I think a lot of people like to say ‘I want to keep it the way it was’. It’s never the way it was,” says Avola. “You’re growing or you’re dying.”
Driving around Huron County, it’s easy to see the community is divided. Travel down any road and you’ll see signs for and against the turbine expansion.
Both sides say they hope the divisions within the community will heal after the votes are counted.
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 Contributions |
 (via Stripe) |
 (via Paypal) |
Share:
[ Short URL: https://wind-watch.org/news/?p=82607 ]
