January 30, 2018
Letters, South Dakota

Wind farm scam

Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan | www.yankton.net

The only people who benefited from the Beethoven wind farm are the investors and a few landowners.

Since there are no towers in the Avon school district, Avon School has not received any money from Beethoven. Five jobs were created. Four employees commute from other towns. The secretary doesn’t have family. The result is Avon School hasn’t gained any students or money from Beethoven.

The board of directors of Beethoven were very crafty in building the wind farm just the right size so they could use a 1978 law – Public Utility Regulation Policy Act (PURPA) – and were able to force Northwestern to buy the power from Beethoven. The winners were the investors and a few landowners.

The losers are the customers of Northwestern as we help pay for the $143 million wind farm that only runs less than 50 percent of the time. Now they want us to support another wind farm, which I think is an insult to the intelligence of the citizens of Avon.

Edward Van Gerpen, Avon


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2018/01/30/wind-farm-scam/