AWA Goodhue in their quest to build a 78 megawatt industrial wind facility surrounding our homes is demanding to know the names of members of Goodhue Wind Truth www.goodhuewindtruth.com and its sister organization the Coalition for Sensible Siting www.coalitionforsensiblesiting.com . AWA claims that knowing the people in these groups and the property owned by members of the groups is important to the issue of, good cause not to apply, Goodhue County wind turbine permit standards in the PUC’s permitting process. There are no membership lists for GWT or CSS. I am proud of my association with these groups, they are my neighbors and most are friends. GWT and CSS are working to ensure that turbines will be sited at safe distances from our homes. This will not stop wind development in the county.
My personal decision not to sign a wind lease agreement with Goodhue Wind had little to do with my sympathy for the members of GWT or CSS. I decided early on that Goodhue Wind was not offering a fraction of what I felt they should pay for placing a turbine capable of supplying the electrical needs of 400 family homes on my property. Conditions of the contract would have transferred too much control of my land and my life to Goodhue Wind.
Wind energy development is no miracle cure to global warming or foreign oil. Wind technology comes with its own risks and benefits. It takes control of huge areas of land to collect this energy. And everyone in the area will be affected. Goodhue County’s ten-rotor setback from non-participants is a common sense standard that will help protect neighboring property values and prevent some of the worst problems from wind development. We all worked hard to achieve this limited measure of protection. The work to insure that our local ordinance is not ignored is an ongoing legal battle taking place at the state level. This requires good legal representation and money to pay for it. This will cost tens of thousands of dollars, but will likely save hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars in homeowner property value . This burden has been carried by a small group of residents using large sums of their money to protect everyone in the community. The Coalition for Sensible Siting was established recently to allow anyone who wishes to join this battle an easy way to contribute. Please visit www.coalitionforsensiblesiting.com and donate. Justice is expensive!!! Rick Conrad 06 Mar 2011
Tags: AWA Goodhue, CSS, GWT, PUC
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on Sunday, March 6th, 2011 at 2:30 am by windenergy and is filed under Uncategorized.
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