Better Plan, Wisconsin

Q: So what can you tell us about the wind turbines in this area here? What's your experience with them? Have you had any adverse effects.

Dan: The only thing is the noise--

Julie: Well, first of all it's an eyesore this used to be all  country. They have these red lights and they all seem to flash at the same time, so you feel like you're living in the middle of an airport. Actually, I call it an industrial park. I now feel like I'm in the middle of an industrial park. And they do make noise. We're getting a southwest wind. If you walk over there you're going to hear these two [points to turbines] making their noise.

Q: I hear some noise right now. Is that what I hear?

Julie: Yeah. That's not an airplane, that's the wind turbine. Step over here. There's two of them back here. You hear that?

Q: That's loud.

Dan: I can hear it at night when I'm laying in bed.

Julie: We have a brand new addition right in the back of the house and you can hear that.

Q: Now, you have your house up for sale. Is it because of the wind turbines?

Julie: It pushed us-- it's not the only reason, we want to get closer to our family--- but it pushed us to giddy-up and get out. Because we knew it when it was peaceful-- you'd hear the birds, the wind, and now we got this. And maybe somebody might not care, there's people who live along highways and airports and maybe they don't care but we knew what this place was like.

NOTE FROM THE BPRC RESEARCH NERD: our second video is about what is going on at a national wildlife refuge called the Horicon Marsh which is just two miles from the 86 turbine wind farm these people are have been forced to live with.

The turbines were built just two miles from the marsh, which is considered to be a wetland of global importance for wildlife and nearly 300 species of birds, some of which migrate seasonally and others which make their year round home in the Horicon Marsh. If not for the efforts of concerned citizens, the wind developers would have put the turbines much closer.

Wind developers downplay the effect of industrial scale turbines on wildlife, saying that wind energy's role in the reduction of green house gases is a fair trade for bird and bat deaths. But because wind turbines rely on fossil-fuel burning power plants in order to function, the National Academy of Sciences determined that that wind energy's impact on the reduction of CO2 emissions is negligible. Danish studies show the same conclusion. Wind energy is the only renewable resource that keeps us tied to fossil fuel and transmission lines. In the 2009 legislative session there will be a push for wind turbine siting reform. This will take away the power of our local governments to have any say about where wind turbines can be located in our communities and hand this power to the PSC. There is no provision for the protection of wildlife in the Wisconsin draft model wind ordinance which the PSC supports. Contact your legislators and ask them why this is? And visit the Horicon Marsh Systems Advocates website at hmsadvocates.org to find out how you can help.