Rural citizens fight good fight on wind
Lincoln Journal Star | 4/21/19 | journalstar.com
It is with gratitude that I thank the watchful citizens of rural Nebraska who are reading updated wind energy research, traveling to the State Capitol and asking questions about responsible wind use for Nebraska.
While I am too busy with my work and family, they are sacrificing financial gain and time to protect our water and land resources and preserve habitats and ecosystems that need to be preserved if humans are truly going to reduce our carbon footprint.
In the blizzard of 1949, my grandmother was living in the Sandhills, using electricity that came from wind chargers that stored in batteries. Wind energy is not new for the Sandhills. The difference is scale and size of recent technology, means to install it, who benefits from it and the carbon footprint it may leave.
Thank you for asking legislators tough questions about how quickly Nebraska is changing our landscape: Is it sustainable without tax credits or power purchase agreements? What is the lifetime of a wind turbine, and how can we fund cleanup and removal (landfills cause global warming)? What are the negative impacts to our environment? Will this impact the environment needed for Nebraska’s leading agricultural industry that is under strain from the worst flood in our history? Should we be putting turbines all over rural Nebraska, and how does this affect small communities?
Responsible investments are important for Nebraska’s families. Who knows our land and water better than those who live and die by it? I thank you.
Carla Leahy, Lincoln
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2019/04/22/rural-citizens-fight-good-fight-on-wind/