Posted on 01/25/2013 7:25:17 PM PST by TurboZamboni
Farmer Mark Schroeder of Elgin, Minn., knew something was seriously wrong when he heard a noise from his new windmill that sounded like a helicopter landing on the roof of his house.
"You could hear the noise 2 or 3 miles away," he said.
The windmill shook furiously atop its 160-foot tower. Black smoke billowed from the control unit. Schroeder said he tried shutting off the power, but the windmill's three 25-foot-long blades continued spinning furiously. One of the 500-pound blades eventually sheared off and flew about 100 yards into a field, bringing Schroeder's dream of energy independence crashing to earth.
That was last February. Schroeder said the Excelsior company that sold and installed the unit, Renewable Energy SD, promised to replace it but never has, and no longer responds to his calls.
Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson introduced Schroeder and other farmers Friday while announcing that she had filed a lawsuit against the company and its owner, Shawn Dooling, 46, of Shorewood, seeking to hold them accountable.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
I wonder if the rest of the country can file lawsuits against the federal goobermint for their 'investments' of our tax dollars on similar boondoggles?
Just what I thought, another green energy stimulus boondoggle. The company took the money and ran, how long till the bankruptcy? I also wonder how much of that stimulus money went back to Bammy? Any bets on if the windmills were made in China?
Anyone know if this is the same company that dumped a ton of money for the renewable energy issue on the ballot last fall that also went down in flames in Michigan?
Stupid sucker should eat the loss and maybe he'll learn something. Green energy is no different from any other scam except that it is politically correct so the perps are assumed to be clean. In a town near me one felon tried to sell a "solar farm" to the town. He almost succeeded with the help of a relatively clean partner and several stupid suckers on the town council and employed by the town. Last I have heard he moved his scam to Tennessee.
The problem with solar scams is that all of us ratepayers are on the hook, not just the original sucker (the town or the homeowner). One of the very worst ideas in the world is rooftop solar. Might make sense if you are completely off the grid. Might make sense if you are in Arizona and require most power for cooling at peak solar. Otherwise it is just a scam that rips off all ratepayers and taxpayers.
You ballyhoo injustice?
Takes two to tango, the scammer and the greedy victim. What about all the farmers that saw through the scam and didn’t sign up?
Well, it IS producing energy, sort of.
Laws passed by technologically ignorant lawyers who do not realize that these machines are scarcely more advanced than the ones manufactured fifty years ago and are probably made from worse machined parts.
Greedy or economical?
I do not believe in an utterly caveat emptor world. I think vendors should be rightly held liable.
It don’t matter, if they are fraudulently oversold then that is fraud. Some are suggesting to shame the victims of the fraud (and their governmental representatives) out of pursuing legal remedies for the fraud because that would “teach them a lesson.” I do not believe in that kind of world, though many liberals do hold that sort of view of the world conservatives want. So it pains me when a conservative actually gives ammo to the liberals.
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