February 25, 2020
Letters, Missouri

Farms would unfairly suffer under wind turbines

St. Louis Post-Dispatch | February 24, 2020 | www.stltoday.com

Regarding the guest column by Blake Hurst “Proposed wind-power transmission line threatens our property rights” (Feb. 19): The Clean Line Grain Belt Express may permanently scar farmland across eight northern Missouri counties. In Randolph and Chariton counties, signs posted on roadways declare, “No Eminent Domain for Private Gain.” The message prompts the observation that is missing in Post-Dispatch articles is an exposé of investors, including ones out of state, standing to line their pockets heavily through development and proposed continuous operation of this wind energy project in Missouri.

Obviously, urban proponents of the Clean Line Grain Belt Express have bought into the mantra – clean and cheap energy. The hue and cry holds center stage in this debate. Off stage, consider for a moment the possible radical effects of installing hundreds of giant wind turbines, each one as tall as the Statue of Liberty, collectively spanning 200 miles on the private properties of 570 Missouri landowners.

Eminent domain? Urbanites pushing for these monsters should have one in their back yard. Driving through a corridor in central Illinois east of Bloomington lands the traveler in a territory dominated by the proliferation of wind turbines. It is not pleasant.

Commended, however, are the Post-Dispatch editors who published the views of Blake Hurst, president of the Missouri Farm Bureau, on this subject. By doing so, the Post-Dispatch airs the concerns of many in Missouri’s farmland, and it is a generous overture consistent with the newspaper’s advocacy of equality and inclusivity.

Richard H. Warneck
Webster Groves

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2020/02/25/farms-would-unfairly-suffer-under-wind-turbines/