County should stay true to agriculture
Journal Review | June 6, 2018 | www.journalreview.com
Developing public-use facilities with a regional planning degree since the 1980s, I believe wind power is a great thing when placed in correct areas – specifically the American West’s wind corridor or any land area having little current value. Lafayette is a good example, where the city provided land to CityBus that was of no real value to the city. CityBus secured grant funding to install windmills on this land. Now turbines generate wind power to supply CityBus’ administrative office and maintenance facilities. Planning at its finest.
Unfortunately, the Montgomery County wind proposal is a flawed concept. The proposal, regardless of support from our lobbyist-bought state Congress, causes irreparable damage by devaluing the county’s greatest asset – its rich agricultural fields. Such a transaction only leaves a community with monuments of misjudgment as a legacy of those who agreed to its installation.
In the words of T. Boone Pickens – “Don’t screw up the things we have going for us.” The main thing we have going for us is the production of valuable crops – far more than our contribution of wind energy.
Is there an identity crisis of trying to show how “advanced” we are? How advanced are we to degrade a valuable asset with something that would be a welcomed sight on many under-used properties?
My great-uncle, who lived in Texas, once said that the closer he got to New Richmond, the better the crops looked. No one will say that about our wind farms. To Montgomery County leaders, will you be remembered as individuals that protected our valuable asset or be the reason it was sacrificed?
Chris Oppy
GDC Environmental Services Inc.
Lafayette
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2018/06/07/county-should-stay-true-to-agriculture/