Mailbag: Matt writes: Re wind tower issue in Union

(Ed. note: After the annexation matter at the recent Town of Union Planning commission meeting, the issue of wind towers was discussed. I missed this section and Matt fills the gap.)

"I would like to add that at the
meeting on Thursday even though the meeting was not
scheduled for public input, many ( guessing 15-20
people ) were allowed to speak their mind. Most
everyone from the town of union spoke out in
opposition. No one from the town of union spoke out
in support. One resident from the town of magnolia
who has the current test tower for ecoenergy and is
now an employee of ecoenergy spoke in favor of wind
energy. The town was made aware that they cannot stop
any renewable energy project unless there is an
ordinance regarding health and safety issues.
Basically, if a landowner wants a wind turbine either
industrial or self use, they would be able to in the
town of union because they have no such ordinance.
The towns permission is not needed, this is to humor
the town. The Plan Commission is looking to see if
they can place a moratorium on this issue until some
resolution can be resolved. "

Previous to the meeting, Matt has written the Observer that:

I do not know how aware you are of the proposed
Industrial Wind Areas in Rock County, Magnolia
Township which is more well known, and flying under
the radar is the Town of Union. Both are being
pursued by EcoEnergyLLC with home offices in the
Chicago area.

Until two weeks ago I believed wind power was the
future of Americas Energy Source. It seemed almost
too good to be true. No emmisions, Free, no harm to
valuable resources. I did some hard core research
involving sites like www.aweo.org and realized that
this is not what it is touted as.

Maybe this is something that the masses don't realize,
but wind energy is another arm of large corporations
taking advantage of lucrative tax breaks and
subsidies.
The wind turbines have been proven to be between
15-25% efficient on average. Rock County is not
regarded as a prime site. The power from wind will
always require a backup power supply due to its
variable and unreliable nature. It does not get
stored. Wind Power will not lead to power plants
being shut down or the elimination of new plants, it
will always need to be backed up by a conventional
coal or gas fired plant which produces CO2 while
idling in inefficient standby mode waiting for the
wind to stop so it can repeatedly be ramped up and
down. Electric energy production uses at most 3% of
the oil in the U.S., so the dependence on foreign oil
arguement is unfounded. When the wind stops blowing
where does the power come from? People need to
realize we do not need to make more power, we need to
conserve power by using compact fluorescent bulbs
which I will start buying immediately. This is a
snowjob by worldwide energy companies that use peoples
wishful thinking to there advantage. Please check out
this link if you have any interest.

http://johnrsweet.com/personal/wind/PDF/Schleede-costbenefit20040624.pdf