Better Plan, Wisconsin

Democrat? Republican?

When it comes to siting industrial wind turbines in Wisconsin communites, these representatives boldly cross party lines to defend the rights of our local governments.

They are:

Brett Davis (R)

Kim Hixon, (D)

Frank Lasee (R)

Bob Ziegelbauer (D)

During the last legislative push to take away local power over this issue and hand it to the PSC, they stood up to defend local control, and were quick to respond to all our questions and concerns about the issue.

We know there will be another push to take away power from local government in the upcoming legislative session. Wind developers and lobbyists and a few legislators have been doing all they can to make this happen. We need legislators who will fight for the rights of our local governments. We hope to see Davis, Hixon, Lasee and Zigelbauer back in Madison!

Here's what Frank Lasee had to say when asked the following question:

Should statewide standards be developed for wind power generation projects, and if so, what should be guiding principles?

Frank Lasee:

Federal and state laws are already favorable for windmills.

Windmills would not exist without very large tax subsidies.

People do not understand that windmills are a very expensive form of electricity that taxpayers and electric users pay for. They only make electricity when the wind blows, and, for some reason, not even all the time when it blows.

Wind is free, but the construction and maintenance of these structures is not. Because of this favorable "encouragement" with our laws and tax dollars, I have deep concerns with a statewide siting standard.I believe that they will favor windmills over the local people that have to live near them.

This is wrong. There needs to be a fair balance.

It is better for each county to go through the struggle to find their local balance between windmills and the people that it directly affects. Manitowoc County has been in the midst of this. This route allows for the maximum citizen input and also allows for the introduction of ideas and standards that have been tried and tested elsewhere.

Just because a decision is made in Madison, or Washington D.C., doesn't make it better or more fair for those that must live with it day to day. In fact, I believe that these decisions from a distance are often less sensitive to local citizens.

Witness what is happening with our economy now because of the regulations and requirements of our federal government. At this sensitive economic time, our government should not keep adding costs to people and to businesses that produce goods or services and employ people.

Right now, our government should be looking to lower the cost of doing business in our state and country so that we can continue to lead the world in worker productivity. Producing real goods and real services at a competitive cost is what will provide a healthy job market and get us out of our economic uncertainty.

NOTE FROM THE BPRC RESEARCH NERD: Thank you to these representatives for being so involved in this issue, and for giving us a fighting chance against the big money power of wind developers and wind lobbyists in Madison who would be all too happy to run rough shod over the concerns of local residents and force industrial wind farms into communities where they don't belong.