Think twice before agreeing to let wind turbines fill our landscape 

I moved out of my home in Fort Wayne because of nonstop noise, trash everywhere and violent crime.

It wasn’t always like that. When we bought our house, it was in a beautiful, quiet little neighborhood, and the neighbors were all nice. After paying on a mortgage for 23 years, we ended up having to sell for less than we still owed on it. We lost big time. We were at least comforted by the fact that we finally found a place in the country.

It was blissfully peaceful and quiet with beautiful views all around. We were happy until Nov 16, when I went to a planning commission meeting. I heard they were planning to drop about 160 industrial-sized wind turbines in my township.

I was livid by the time I walked out of the meeting that night. Loss of property value and quality of life, again. Since then I’ve done some research.

I did a YouTube search and watched a bunch of videos. I disregarded the propaganda ones and stuck to the videos posted by people who live in areas with turbines. The shadow flicker alone was enough to give me a headache, and I watched it on video for only a few minutes. At night there is no escape still, because of the blinking lights on top of the turbines.

Then there was the noise – I hate that noise! Plus, there is the view – these things are gigantic. They are roughly 40 stories high. The box on top weighs 50 tons. The 120-foot-long spinning blades look like they are turning slowly, but that’s just because of their sheer size; they turn at about 90-180 mph. I’m told you can easily hear them at least 2½ miles away at night. Not unbelievable because at night from my front yard I can hear horse hooves on the county road a mile away. There are many more reasons to oppose wind farms.

Wind energy is not an efficient energy and is not cost-efficient. It cannot be stored on a commercial basis and perishes if not used right away. It is not constant and therefore has to be coupled with another source. Because of an old law, our existing energy company is required to buy the much more expensive wind energy. (Fossil fuel energy is 4½ cents per kilowatt hour vs. wind at 8½ cents).

We all know green energy is highly subsidized by taxpayer dollars. What happens when the gravy train stops? I came across an interesting article by Don Surber posted at www.biggovernment.com about 14,000 abandoned turbines at the Kamaoa wind farm in Hawaii. Imagine what an ugly scar that is on the face of an otherwise beautiful island!

As subsidies are cut (we cannot sustain this level of spending by our government, for one thing), turbines that were built in one of the best wind spots on earth are simply abandoned, spinning industrial junk that generates nothing but bird kills. All this taxpayer wasted money and pollution plus the privilege of having to pay higher energy costs to boot. (Our area is rated at least two grades lower as a source for wind, making even less sense to build here).

Huge numbers of birds are killed by turbines, and about five times as many bats die overall. Bats die the worst death. Besides being chopped or sliced like the other birds, they also suffer from an air pressure drop as the blades go around. It causes their internal organs to fill with fluid and they literally explode. So much for being kind to animals. So much for preserving our delicate eco-system.

Wind turbines destroy the environment and are a huge waste of taxpayer dollars. Green energy on a commercial basis is a scam. Your tax dollars are redistributed through crony capitalism as well as to other countries. The company wanting to put the monstrosities in Whitley County is owned overseas, and that’s where most of your money will be going. Three-fourths of turbines are also built overseas, so that means more money gone.

I don’t blame the people who want to make money by leasing their land, but I do question their thought process to justify what this will do to the environment, our taxes, property values and to their neighbors’ physical well-being.

One man I talked to told me he refused the wind company two years ago because he saw no benefit to his neighbors. What a selfless thought, and what insight. That makes him an amazing man in my book. We need more men like him around here.

June Mintchell is a resident of Cleveland Township.