September 28, 2019
Opinions, South Dakota

Wind farms: A bad idea

By Gregg Hubner | Capital Journal | Sep 18, 2019 | www.capjournal.com

The South Dakota Board of Economic Development recently turned down the request of Triple H Wind for a taxpayer funded reinvestment payment for their proposed wind farm in Hyde County.

The article by Bob Mercer also said this was a “rare move”. I agree.

I have watched this Board shovel taxpayer money to wind farms for years, twice to Prevailing Winds that is owned by sPower, another multinational corporation.

I have never understood why a huge company like Xcel Energy needed the 8.2 million dollars they received from the Board in 2017, after all it was just reported in the Minneapolis Star Tribune their CEO is compensated 26 million dollars a year! It was reported by the Dakota Free Press that the 44 permanent jobs created by all these wind farms that received our tax money cost us taxpayers $609,000 per job.

I don’t know what caused the board to deny this application, maybe they are discovering like many others, wind is renewable but wind turbines are an environmental catastrophe, each using 900 tons of steel, 2500 tons of concrete, 45 tons of non-recyclable plastic and 900 pounds of rare earth elements plus the fossil fuels used to manufacture, deliver, erect and maintain them.

In a recent article by South Dakota News Watch, I read where after these current projects are up, that will make about 1,500 wind turbines in our once beautiful state.

That’s 4,500 non-recyclable fiberglass blades that need to be properly disposed of. It’s another expense that will be passed on to the ratepayer. A lot of taxpayer money going to a lot of big corporations to build something that nobody needs that only works 40 percent of the time.

Just saying, South Dakota, WAKE UP.

Gregg Hubner is president of South Dakotans for Safe and Responsible Renewable Energy


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2019/09/28/wind-farms-a-bad-idea/