Letter to the Editor

Reader disputes the Chronicle’s recent wind farm column
To the editor:
     I was referred to an article in the Chronicle’s November 22 edition titled “The new industrious complex.” I’ll have to admit, I was “taken aback” to learn the article was talking about the “wonders of wind” which would, according to the author, be a Godsend to small towns and rural areas like Franklin County.
     Before going into the article, there are some undisputable facts about wind that we need to know:
     1. Wind will never compete in the energy market without massive government subsidies. The wind industry touts Warren Buffet as a big investor in wind, which is true, especially Mid-American, but he is quite clear his motivation is strictly as a tax write-off.
     2. The amount of fossil fuel expended for construction and maintenance of the turbine and transmission lines will never be recovered over the lifetime of the turbine which means, even if you believe in man-made climate change because of fossil fuel usage, wind adds to—not reduces—greenhouse gases.
     3. Wind will never replace even one fossil fuel power plant because they have to remain operational to be used when the wind doesn’t blow sufficiently to produce electricity, which occurs 65-80 percent of the time. Coupled with the fact technology hasn’t come up with a method to store excess electricity when the wind does blow.
     But there is one indisputable fact about wind. Wind is the poster child of those pseudo environmentalists inflicted with the “politically correct” pabulum of the liberal left blaming “big oil” for every ill. Somehow the “clean green” philosophy of wind and solar renders human logic and knowledge useless relegating it to the deep dark recesses of unused gray matter replaced by “feelings.” Facts don’t register with this crowd.
     What about the article from this “transplant from the east” whose main point is the economic benefit from the increased tax revenue of wind turbines is essential for the well-being of small rural communities like Franklin County?
     Does the county receive more tax money? Of course, but at what price? Is the reduction in property values for farmland (meaning less revenue) made up by erection of turbines? What about the physical presence of these monstrosities as it relates to individuals living in their quite irritating shadow including noise and sunlight flashes? Has anyone in the industry asked our avian friends how they feel when flying into a wind farm? Quite ironic how much we have spent protecting eagles from man and the huge penalties if we kill one even accidently. But now our government negotiates with wind developers allowing a certain number to be killed without penalty.
     The author takes Trump to task for being a “climate denier” with the assertion “it isn’t true, as historic records prove that temperatures are rising...” Not true.
     Until this past year, world-wide temperatures haven’t risen for 18 years by any measurement! They also fail to mention “global warming” was changed to “climate change” for this very reason because if the basic assumption—increased “greenhouse” gases in the atmosphere allows less heat to escape—is correct, temperatures would rise because a greenhouse exists to retain heat and increase the temperature! Since they haven’t, perhaps those gases aren’t acting like a greenhouse. Much easier to merely change the name than to explain their “science” isn’t.
     Subsidies will, at some point cease. When that happens, the turbines will become ugly reminders, blighting the landscape, of another failed damn costly monument to “clean green” energy. Who will clean up the mess? The farmers receiving $6-10,000 a year per turbine? Perhaps.
     The wind farms constructing them? Highly unlikely unless the county negotiated removal in the contract. The environmental whackos responsible for the federal legislation giving away billions of taxpayer dollars for a project doomed to fail because the wind doesn’t always blow? Only if you believe in fairytales.
     Small rural communities like Franklin County need to remove the blinders and ignore the article written by the “east coast transplant!” There is no “free lunch!” Never has been nor ever will be.
Jerry Crew,
Webb, IA