Wisconsin fiasco
May 14, 2009
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Butler Ridge Project near Iron Ridge, Wisconsin, May 2, 2009, with thanks to Better Plan Wisconsin. (WTS.com has taken editorial liberties with this photo.)
On May 12, 2009 the State of Wisconsin Assembly and Senate Committees on Energy held a joint public hearing. They listened to 8 hours of public testimony regarding Assembly Bill 256 and Senate Bill 185, which propose to remove all decision-making for wind energy projects from municipalities and give it to the state Public Service Commission. (This being the same PSC which has bowed to wind developers and approved 1000′ setbacks from homes like this one, above.)
Click here for Lynda Barry’s rendering of some of the testimony
Hundreds of rural Wisconsinites turned out for the hearing. They testified by the dozens, even as panel members drifted in and out of the room, and as panel members showed their obvious disdain and indifference to everything being said. Among presenters, there were tears, there were shaky voices, there was anger, there was sorrow. There was dignity and courage. There was eloquence. There was cogency. And there were statements made that were, yes, technically irrelevant to the immediate issue of whether to turn over all control to the PSC, but were in no way irrelevant to the outrage of placing turbines in the speaker’s backyard.
Happily, the entire proceeding was professionally videotaped by Wisconsin Eye, which appers to be a public interest group covering Wisconsin politics and legislation. WTS.com urges you to fix yourself a bowl of hot buttered popcorn, sit back, and watch the whole shebang. It’s an eye opener.
Click here to be taken to the Better Plan Wisconsin website. Scroll around till you find the above screenshot. Click on “Click here to Watch.” Have a box of tissues handy for tears.
Comment by Lori Jalonski on 06/24/2009 at 10:06 am
I have a meeting tonight to fight windmills in my area and from searching the internet I came upon your name and study but your book is not out yet to buy for tonight? Is there any information you can give me to use tonight at my meeting? Thank you! Lori
Comment by JOAN LAGERMAN on 08/22/2009 at 1:33 am
I went to Madison, Wisconsin, on May 12th, as did 2 busfull from the area. We live in the “Blue Sky Green Field” wind turbine industrial complex [Wisconsin]. I listened to heart wrenching testimony for 6 1/2 hours before it was my turn. That little three-minute speach I’d been staring at for hours went out the window. “Mad” doesn’t cover it. I was incensed at what some of the good citizens in Wisconsin have been asked to bear.
The whole NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) thing will never hold water until they begin putting these 400′ things into public parks or golf courses, where everyone can share in the noise and flicker, etc. At least there they wouldn’t be keeping people awake at night listening to the pulsating howl. Until you live with it, how could you possibly know what it’s like!
People stop here frequently, pull in the drive during the afternoon to listen. I don’t really mind; they’re just curious. They often comment that they seem quiet. “Should have been here at around 2:00 A.M or whatever time it was last night when they woke me up,” is my usual retort. I’ve often heard people say, “We parked right under one so we could listen.” Of course I have to expain how sound travels. Go 1000′ feet downwind and listen to the same turbine.
Before they pull their car away, I usually hear, “I’m so sorry!”
My testimony is at 6:30:45 on Lynda Barry’s website, Better Plan Wisconsin.
Editor’s reply: Thank you for your honesty and sorrow and anger. All three. I, too, am sorry for what you have been forced to endure. Nina joins me in saying this.
Until victims express more anger like yours, nothing will happen, and the wind turbine salesmen will continue their crimes.