Page 14 - aruba-today-20240726

A14 BUSINESS
Friday 26 July 2024
Wind farms’ benefits to communities can be slow or complex,

leading to opposition and misinformation

By MARY KATHERINE WILDE- restrictive local ordinances were rare until the phrase ways buy in. That’s some- desire more strict zoning
MAN and MELINA WALLING it can stop major wind and “wind turbine syndrome” thing Kathy Croker saw dur- regulations in Ford County.
Associated Press solar projects from moving was coined in a self-pub- ing her 25 years as an ap- One of those people, Ted
After NextEra proposed a forward,” Eisenson said. lished book. praiser and 17 as an assessor Hartke, says that the noise
wind farm in Greeley Coun- Wind developers told the A dramatic spike in com- before joining the board of from a nearby wind farm
ty, Nebraska two years ago, Lawrence Berkeley Nation- plaints then followed. supervisors in Buena Vista led his family to leave their
Robert Bernt, a dairy farm home about 10 years ago.
owner in the area, helped to He said they couldn’t sleep
mobilize community mem- and that they could “sense
bers against the idea. it in the house” when the tur-
His group held town hall bines were running.
meetings and ran ads on the Hartke, an engineer and
radio, arguing the wind farm surveyor, says he initially sup-
would “fragment” the com- ported wind power, but has
munity, by lowering property since become an ardent
values and leaving “decay- opponent in public meet-
ing blades in our landfills.” ings and on social media.
Bernt estimated Greeley is He feels his family experi-
the eighth county where he enced real harm, saying
has fought a wind project. “there’s a lot of victims just
“In every case, people were like us.” But he also men-
upset because they felt they tioned that being “so pissed
weren’t told the truth,” Bernt off” has led him to find out
said. more and more about wind
To Bernt, the truth is that online.
wind developers under- “It seems like my Facebook
deliver on their economic feed just feeds me this stuff,”
promises to communities he said.
and harm the environment. Wind turbines operate, Tuesday, May 7, 2024, in Paxton, Ill. Facebook groups that often
He said people’s taxes don’t Associated Press feature repeating group
go down, and wind farms members and memes rife
take away from an area’s al Laboratory in a January “Every fear, every misinfor- County, Iowa, one of the with misinformation have
natural beauty, noting rural report at least a quarter of mation that you can imag- first counties in the nation been documented as a
Nebraska could use a boost applications to build wind ine gets put on the barn to have big wind projects. highly effective tool at stall-
in tourism income. projects were canceled in wall,” Hansen said. “We She says she always thought ing local interest in wind
Bernt’s words are an echo the last five years, with local have rural communities who wind turbines were “kinda projects, at times spreading
of those commonly cited by rules and community oppo- are going out of their way cool,” and says she’s seen fear-mongering false claims
wind power’s opponents, sition cited as some of the to pursue agendas that are firsthand the tax implications related to health or property
with arguments often hing- leading reasons. counterproductive to their for the county, including mil- values.
ing on the idea that wind John Hansen, president of own interests.” lions of dollars to the school The Greeley county board
developers under-deliver the Nebraska Farmers Union Some claims may be harder district. of commissioners voted to
on their promises. Unpicking and an advocate of wind for wind proponents to ad- But she said from her position allow a special use per-
facts from fiction and the power, said its opponents dress. in local government that mit for NextEra despite the
gray area of people’s per- are increasingly organized Wind developers stress ac- people didn’t necessarily vocal opposition. Work is

sonal feelings in between and often cite the same cidents where turbines fall trust her when she told them scheduled to begin on the
is difficult. And even some arguments in each com- down or catch fire are rare, wind power might actually Greeley County project
local leaders who can see munity. but the incidents tend to help with taxes. in 2025, a NextEra spokes-
money flowing into govern- Many anti-wind coalitions be widely publicized when “In my experience, the woman said in a statement.
ment coffers say they had cite declines in local prop- they do happen, and often larger population does not She noted the project is a
trouble understanding a erty values, for instance. A appear on anti-wind social think about the benefits of roughly $200 million capital
complex taxing system at December review by the media channels. Public in- a larger tax base,” she said. investment for the com-
first. Lawrence Berkeley National formation showing indus- “There is a general mistrust.” pany, and will pay out $27
While wind power can con- Laboratory found reduced try-wide tracking of such Other people say their minds million in lease payments to
tribute millions per year to property value for homes accidents does not exist, were changed by talking to landowners over the farm’s
rural communities, an inde- within one mile of turbines, though experts updating the particular community mem- expected 30-year life in ad-
pendent Associated Press but those values rebounded National Wind Turbine Data- bers. dition to the taxes NextEra
analysis found, these eco- after construction finished. base may see catastrophic Like Cindy Ihrke, the vice will pay.
nomic arguments have at Other debunked claims in- turbine failures, and say it is chair of the board of Ford The agreement reached
times been drowned out by clude: Studies have found very uncommon. County, Illinois, who said she between NextEra and the
health and safety concerns, no significant impact of tur- And while about 90% of wasn’t against wind initially. county government requires
as well as accusations that bines on bird life. wind turbines can be recy- She acknowledged some of the company to set aside
wind is taking away from And there is no established cled, for the time being that the benefits of existing wind millions for an eventual de-
a local economy in other link between low-frequency may not include the blades farms, but doesn’t think commissioning and to sup-
ways. Local laws effec- noise from wind turbines and themselves. Wind develop- what they’ve done for the port local roads. Bernt said
tively blocking wind or solar human health, according to ers are working on solutions county is good enough to it is one of the more gen-
projects are increasingly a report authored by Eisen- to keep turbines out of land- want more of it. erous agreements he has
common, said Matthew Ei- son. They point to, among fills. Then Ihrke says that she seen, but “only because
senson, of the Sabin Center other references, one study Even presented with facts heard about people in the there was enough atten-
for Climate Change Law at of Australian wind farms in about wind power and its county “having problems tion brought to the issues”
Columbia University. which complaints related subsequent tax benefits, or having to leave their by concerned community
“When you have extremely to noise and human health however, people don’t al- homes,” which led her to members.q