LOCATION/TYPE

NEWS HOME

[ exact phrase in "" • results by date ]

[ Google-powered • results by relevance ]



Archive
RSS

Add NWW headlines to your site (click here)

Get weekly updates

WHAT TO DO
when your community is targeted

RSS

RSS feeds and more

Keep Wind Watch online and independent!

Donate via Paypal

Donate via Stripe

Selected Documents

All Documents

Research Links

Alerts

Press Releases

FAQs

Campaign Material

Photos & Graphics

Videos

Allied Groups

Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005.

News Watch Home

Industrial wind is costing Iowans 

Credit:  Janna Swanson, guest columnist | The Gazette | May 12, 2019 | www.thegazette.com ~~

All across the Midwest thousands and thousands of acres of our world class farm ground is being taken out of production by industrial wind. We see the roads and the turbine pads but what is hard to see is the soil compaction that comes from construction. Many farmers have told me compacted soil may grow a crop but will not yield even after 12 years and counting.

The wind industry does not use marginal soils to build on, they use some of our very best soils with Corn Suitability Ratings of 95 or more. That lovely soil is our gold and it can take 500 years to make 1 inch of it. There are laws in Iowa such as Iowa Code 335.2 written to keep companies from taking our farmland for industrial pursuits, yet we have over a million of Iowa’s acres alone in industrial wind projects.

Turbines may not emit any CO2 to make energy, but there is a lot of CO2 made in the process of building and maintaining these thousands of power generators. Even one pound of concrete emits .09 lbs. of CO2 and wind turbines use 500-600 square yards of concrete per base. That is roughly 2.5 million tons of CO2 emitted for every turbine base. Between 2016-2017 the net emissions from Iowa’s power sector actually increased.

The American Wind Energy Association boasts that globally industrial wind turbines are avoiding 189 million metric tons of CO2 while the Carbon Project says that man-made CO2 emissions are 35-40 billion metric tons globally. Wind turbines in their 40 year career have only ever managed to “avoid” far less than 1% of the world’s man-made CO2. Do they count back the emissions made by manufacturing, building and maintaining these machines? I don’t know. It would be a good question to ask.

What is all this costing us here in Iowa? Most of us know that Alliant has requested to raise its rates 24.9 percent. MidAmerican Energy has admitted that they will receive $10 billion in tax credits/subsidies for building wind turbines, or roughly $4 million per turbine. Alliant was able to get the same deal. How much more will we have to pay to get “cheap” electricity? How much more environmental destruction will we tolerate for a scant amount of CO2 avoidance?

Home values plummet for the thousands and thousands of Iowans who are forced to live among the turbines, our world class farmland is being destroyed which is the base of our economy, our eagles and bats are being killed by wind turbines and we are paying dearly for it.

• Janna Swanson is president of the Coalition for Rural Property Rights, a board member of the National Wind Watch and a member of the Preservation of Rural Iowa Alliance.

Source:  Janna Swanson, guest columnist | The Gazette | May 12, 2019 | www.thegazette.com

This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.

Wind Watch relies entirely
on User Funding
   Donate via Paypal
(via Paypal)
Donate via Stripe
(via Stripe)

Share:

e-mail X FB LI TG TG Share


News Watch Home

Get the Facts
CONTACT DONATE PRIVACY ABOUT SEARCH
© National Wind Watch, Inc.
Use of copyrighted material adheres to Fair Use.
"Wind Watch" is a registered trademark.

 Follow:

Wind Watch on X Wind Watch on Facebook

Wind Watch on Linked In Wind Watch on Mastodon