September 9, 2017
Letters, Ohio

Letter: Hite all wind, no substance

The Lima News | September 8, 2017 | www.limaohio.com

Ohio is in trouble because our Republican Senator Cliff Hite, along with members of the Democratic caucus, support a bill that will significantly reduce the protective setback between an industrial wind energy turbine and a neighboring property.

None of the recent bill cosponsors live in an area that will support 700 turbines in their back yards. Hite believes that wind energy is the shale of his district. He is wrong! Shale benefits everyone because natural gas is a clean, abundant form of energy and it produces tens of thousands of well paying jobs. Wind, however, only benefits the wind industry. It misuses our tax dollars to make electricity more expensive and harm property values and quality of life.

Well over 50 percent of wind revenue does not come from selling electricity, but instead from taxpayer handouts. It is astonishing that while turbine height has nearly doubled in the past ten years, legislators and the wind lobby propose to measure setbacks the same way they were measured in 2008. It is also the height of stupidity to think that a wind developer would not want to have the latest technology that yields the greatest amount of power generation. The older, less productive models will eventually retire and parts for them will cease to be made just like any other product that becomes obsolete.

The 700-foot giants, next door, are headed near you unless residents of Ohio contact legislators and tell them to say NO to Senate Bill 184 and any other setback bill proposed by Hite. It’s time for Hite to seek alternative employment, maybe within the wind industry.

Dawn Davis, Spencerville


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2017/09/09/letter-hite-all-wind-no-substance/