Colorado town kicks up resistance to proposed wind farms

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_13883475

Colorado town kicks up resistance to proposed wind farms

By Mark Jaffe
The Denver Post
Posted: 11/29/2009 01:00:00 AM MST

LA VETA — Huerfano County, which straddles the Eastern Plains and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, is facing a wind rush.

Three wind-farm projects — particularly one near scenic La Veta Pass — have galvanized grassroots opposition and posed a challenge for county planning officials.

"When voters and legislators adopted renewable-energy goals, I don't know if they were thinking of turning rural Colorado into an industrial zone," said Dawn Blanken, a La Veta councilwoman.

Still, not every wind farm that is proposed will be built. The key is getting an agreement with a utility to buy the energy, said Craig Cox, executive director of the Interwest Energy Alliance, a trade group.

…

[joshcryer]

1. In the Age of Stupid it was stated that more than 80% of proposed farms in the UK...

...were canceled due to protests by people. It's unfortunate.

[kristopher]

3. On average one in three projects are cancelled because of public opposition

I don't think the UK is significantly different than the average.

[joshcryer]

8. The guy making the claim was a windfarm producer, he could have been exaggerating for his cause.

They made it out that it was really hard to get wind farms to be built in the UK, and he pleaded with the town council to let him build them, they denied him, even after he halved the number of turbines to be built.

The farmer himself had no problem with doing it, but he was one guy, and he was the only one to benefit monetarily. I wonder if bribing towns could get them to allow them to be built. Instead of the owner of the land benefiting initially, the whole town gets free power for 10 years or something.

[kristopher]

11. There are cooperative agreements that have worked.

It is a complex topic where a lot of variables come into play. There isn't a one-size-fits-all explanation or solution.

In some cases it (public opposition) is justified, and the process of public participation in decision-making is important to maintain. For example, the peat bogs in England are an extremely sensitive environment that cam be drastically altered - read "killed" - by even the building of a road. My experience is that a strong localized focus on ensuring the public receives accurate information is the best single thing working for these types of projects. The fact is that the benefits nearly always outweigh the costs and when those are known, public acceptance largely follows.

There does exist a problem with people fearful of change being encouraged with misinformation (you see it pop up here sometimes) but that is a separate issue that is difficult to deal with in direct negotiations between stakeholders.

[joshcryer]

14. It's almost entirely asthetic from what I'm seeing. In the movie (which I do recommend):

The snotty lady who was seemingly head of the movement to stop the wind farm development walked up to the farmer whose land it was and told him that he benefited from it (presumably getting paid directly for the turbines using his land), but that everyone else got nothing. The farmers response left a lot to be desired, I wish he pointed out that the clean aspect of the energy was beneficial.

[kristopher]

18. It is more complicated, but the excuse is often aesthetics.

The difference in our perception goes to that whole "pragmatic competence" thingy...

[NYC_SKP]

2. Dawn Blanken can be reached by email.

.

[e-mail]

.

They need to re-think things.

The town council voted to oppose the Silver Mountain project - a 150- megawatt facility - and called for a moratorium on wind projects until the county revises its master plan and land- use regulations.

"La Veta has some charm and some dumpiness. It is a great community of artists and writers and craftsmen," said Ricky Tims, who six years ago relocated his internationally known quilting business to the town of 880.

"But what it really has is this remarkable natural resource," Tims said. "This pristine land. It is what makes this a tourist destination and a real-estate draw - and those are two big parts of our economy."

:patriot:

[kristopher]

4. They are just being forward thinking...

Imagine how much more attractive their little community will be when it isn't so far to the ocean...

[joshcryer]

I wouldn't email 'em unless you live here, could be taken the wrong way.

I'll shoot him an email, Colorado is one of the most fossil fuel dependent states in the country. This is also unfortunate because the Colorado utilities are regulated and allow anyone with 250 MW capacity to hook into the grid and get paid. It's a win win no matter how you look at it. Yeah, a few turbines on the horizon can be irritating, but the visual cost (which you'd get used to anyway) is outweighed by the benefits. Colorado is increasingly progressive, it's the Washington of the midwest in my experience, we'll get there eventually.

The comments on the article are very disappointing.

I do love SL10's comment:

The irony here is no one minds peppering the U.S. with oil wells, but have problems with wind farms.. Hmmm...

It's so true, ever drive through Texas you'd know what it's like, hell, a good deal of the south is that way, peppered with unsightly oil wells, many of which are no longer operational but presumably sit there because it's cheaper to just leave 'em than clean up.

Then again, Texas isn't known very much for scenery, unlike Colorado. Whatever.

[doc03]

5. If I lived in Colorado I wouldn't want a wind-farm in my back

yard anymore than I would want a mountaintop removal mine.

[frazzled]

6. I happen to think the wind farms are beautiful

We passed a huge one in southern Minnesota (or was it western Wisconsin) on a trip this summer, and another, very new, one in north central Indiana this fall. (I know it wasn't there the last 30 times we drove this stretch of road).

I find them elegant and peaceful looking. Maybe I'm odd.

[joshcryer]

7. Same here. This is an artistic community, I wonder if they could use that to their advantage.

Does anyone know if there has been discussion about painting the turbine base with pretty stuff? Or would that impact the environment (make it harder for birds to see 'em, etc)?

[doc03]

9. I visited Colorado a few years ago, I can't imagine

defacing those mountains with windmills. I passed through one area where they were mining something
there thousands and thousands of acres of mountains leveled.

[joshcryer]

10. They're not going to be on the mountains, they're on the planes off of the mountains.

That's where you get your best downdraft, and some serious winds. Huerfano County is half flat, half hilly, I've been through there many times.

The weird part is that the whole east of Colorado is nearly uninhabited, and is highly ideal for windfarms, but there exist no proposals to my knowledge that take advantage of the locations.

I myself am in the process of buying 320 acres of land out in Lincoln County, Colorado. Wind there is perfect for my own turbines.

[kristopher]

12. It's probably lack of transmission. nt

[joshcryer]

13. Shame. It's all farmland (CO had the biggest grain season ever this year). No one would care.

Plus, all of those farmers would be happy to give up an acre or two of land use for the wind farms (total ground utilization I mean). People would be oblivious to windfarms up the whole freakin' middle of the US...

[doc03]

17. I made a big circle when I was out there starting at Denver

to Fort Collins, Granby, Vail, Leadville, Salida, Canon City, Colorado Springs ending at Denver. I never went as far south as Huerfano County. I remember how windy it was on the mountain tops through the RMNF and at Pikes Peak, I was picturing wind mills in those places. Lincoln county looks like it is flat as a table top. My favorite area was around around Salida, few tourists and it was more of a desert type landscape that reminded me of the western movies.

[joshcryer]

20. Winds on mountain tops are not steady, you take advantage of nighly downdrafts.

When the air cools the air on top of the mountains loves to come on in and take the place of the warmer air since it is more dense, so it flows right down the mountains. So sure, on top of the Rockies you may get some crazy ass wind, it is not regular and predictable, it comes and goes very intermittently. But the night winds are going to be there as long as the mountains are.

Plus there's the problem with constructing stuff on top of mountains that is non-trivial to overcome. Best place is on the planes off of the mountains.

[John N Morgan]

15. I like them. They stand for one more tanker not docking at the port. That's freedom.

I also am aware that communities see the wind farms much like mountain top removal. The industry came in, offered a few jobs in the short term, the view was destroyed and the money is evermore shipped out.

I think some permanent amount of offset for local communities is going to be needed. Take Alaska, they pay every state citizen an amount of the profit from the oil pipe.

[kristopher]

19. Actually that is a distortion of a debate

There has been a fight in WVA at Coal River over whether to take off the top of a mountain for coal or to use the top for a 328 MW wind farm. Most of the locals are in favor of wind because it provides jobs that are long term and it keeps the money from exploiting their natural resource in the local community.

Google "Coal River Mountain wind" or go to coalriverwind.org

[OKIsItJustMe]

16. Yes, I find aesthetic objections rather ironic