Posted on 04/20/2015 11:43:34 AM PDT by MichCapCon
Local officials at Michigan’s ground zero for wind energy are telling wind developers “enough is enough.” Huron County has 328 wind turbines, more than all of the other Michigan counties combined. But it has just enacted a moratorium on any additional ones until stricter regulations for industrial wind turbines can be put in place.
“What this means is no turbines for people who don’t want them,” Huron County Commissioner John Nugent said. “The people who want them can still have them as long as it doesn’t adversely affect their neighbors.”
At its final March meeting the Huron County Commission voted 4-3 to adopt the moratorium, which will last 90 days, or until the county zoning ordinance is updated with changes recommended by the county’s wind energy zoning committee. If the changes aren’t enacted within 90 days the moratorium could be extended until they are.
Nugent said there is no secret about what the new regulations will be like. They will include increasing the setback distance for the turbines, creating tighter noise restrictions, eliminating turbine flicker for the homes of nonparticipating residents, and a ban on wind development within three miles of the Lake Huron shoreline. This three-mile no-windmill zone was recommended by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The county’s wind energy zoning committee has been working on revisions for more than a year, and a possible moratorium has been under discussion by the board of commissioners for months. On Dec. 30, 2014, the board voted to seek legal assistance for drafting a moratorium. In addition to the moratorium, the board has also taken action to assure it covers wind developers that had already submitted site plan review requests to the planning commission.
Complaints that living near industrial wind turbines causes adverse health impacts have been voiced worldwide. They include symptoms such as headaches and dizziness allegedly caused by exposure to low-frequency noise, infrasound emitted by the turbines and visual problems allegedly caused by the flicker effect of the turbine blades.
“This is a big deal,” said Kevon Martis director of the Interstate Informed Citizens Coalition (IICC), a nonprofit organization that is concerned about the construction of wind turbines in the region. “The moratorium in Huron County is a significant blow to Michigan wind development. Wind developers will no doubt continue to whistle past the tombstones and claim that most people do not mind having entire townships and counties turned into 50-story-tall power plants. But as wind development has increased in Michigan, people's voices of protest have also increased. And most communities hosting wind turbines are now using every legal and regulatory means at their disposal to stop the bleeding.”
Minnesota-based Geronimo Wind Energy, arguably the wind developer most immediately affected by the moratorium, did not respond to a phone call offering the opportunity to comment.
darn that flicker effect..
The net effect of having wind turbines creating electricity will be the slow down of the earth’s rotation...
Taking the energy out of the wind causes the same and opposite force on the towers anchored to the earth.
Eventually, there will be no wind left to reach the east coast...
I hope you’re joking.
Interestingly, solar panel technology has advanced so much in the last 20 years that this could become really viable, especially in parts of the world with a lot of sunny days (read: southwestern USA and much of California). And solar arrays on top of houses won't harm birds and aren't sources of serious mechanical reliability problems.
I think you are wrong here. Consider a windmill as a sail on a ship. The ship gets pushed in the direction of the wind. Without a windmill, the wind would just blow over the land. But with the windmill, the wind 'pushes' the windmill. So, the windmills will cause the earth's rotation to speed up. Days will become shorter. We may spin out of orbit.
Actually the wind turbines do take energy out of the wind but the energy will be restored downwind due to heating from the sun.
I do think there may be a problem of creating a rain shadow for a ways downwind if there are enough windmills but I don’t think any serious studies have been done. Seems like there were some stories about warmer ground level temperatures under windmills at night in Texas. I think it was due to the turbines not allowing an inversion layer to form.
I noticed the earth slowed down and the days got longer when I planted trees last July. Those cedars block a lot of wind. Clearly you know your atmospheric science...
A few decades ago my wife worked in airline reservations. She had this one obtuse customer that insisted that my wife find her a flight to Oahu no matter how many times she was told there were no flights available.
Finally, out of desperation my wife said to the lady, “Look, if we put one more person on that island it will sink!”
The lady bought it and apologized.
I’m sure if she were alive today she voted for obama, both times.
I can sail faster in my boat if I blow on the sails. In fact... I put a fan on the deck to get more air in the sails. My logic is sound....
Big Wind:
“we don’t make much electricity, but we do make a lot of money for some folks”
SEE?!
This could be WORSER than Glow Bull Warming!!
Deadly series.
This could be worse than HILLIARY!!
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