“They are just complaining” has become a favorite line of those that support the High Prairie Wind project and it is worth taking a minute to really evaluate this justification. In every wind project there are two sides of the isle, supporters and those that oppose - no neutral, no other positions. In these projects, neutral is support, silence is support. Something that is consistent across the world is the fact that those who oppose are largely ignored. From the first signature, to finalized agreements, no one asks those that prefer to not participate what they think. No one asks those that may not have land to offer but still see increased electric bills, "Is that ok with you?" Why is that? Doesn’t everyone that lives in a county pay taxes? Don’t we all have equal say? Shouldn’t we all be allowed the same property rights? The fact is that when these projects are put to a community vote they are turned down every time. There is a bill in Ohio currently under consideration, SB 234, which would give residents the right to vote on industrial wind projects. The panic and backlash from wind and energy companies has been massive. They have good reason to be terrified. If this becomes a precedent across the U.S., it will become nearly impossible to site a project. When people can safely state their position without the risk of public backlash, through a confidential vote, every time the answer is no!
The combination of being completely disregarded, despite having mountains of data to support concerns, on top of voting officials financially benefiting from their decisions, one can assume there are people here pretty fed up and frustrated. So when a person points out an issue of contention and backs up concerns with research, data, and examples from other projects, is that complaining? By definition complaining is an expression of dissatisfaction but also to state that one is suffering. So how else does one state the injustice happening here? Just because a person supports this project does not mean that the positions of anyone stating differently are inferior.
It is important for everyone here to attempt to put themselves in the shoes of those that think differently than them. For example, we have continued to acknowledge the issue of money as the reason why individuals signed up. We have yet to hear anyone state “clean energy” and “saving the environment” as reasons for supporting this project so we will focus on money being the driving factor. It is not our place to determine the financial needs of each signer but one thing remains constant in agriculture, there is never enough money. There are signers that have huge farms and receive thousands in government subsidies and there are signers that run smaller operations with no government help. Both of these classifications and everything in between is a guaranteed farm that could use the extra money. The question that should be asked is, how significant does this help your farm? There are large farms with anywhere from 8-11 turbines and there are many farms with just one. That is the minimum difference of roughly $150,000. So the justification of “people need the money” leaves the question of just how much do people need for this to justify the destructive cost? Is one turbine going to save a farm? Are the farms raking in $150,000+, farms that really needed money to begin with? Is it our responsibility as a community to take on health impacts, property devaluation, electric bill increases, to name a few, to support farms here? If there are only a handful of people significantly profiting from this, specifically 1.69% of Schuyler, is that reason enough to remove all other forms of economic development in a community for everyone else? Once again it is not our place to make these determinations but when money is used as a justification there are questions that need to be asked. Questions that require actual answers, not disregarded because of lack of ability to answer and labled as complaining.
Despite differences in opinion on this project there is concern for those that signed, from those of us that oppose. The closest turbine to a home is someone that signed. We have done the research and made the connections in other projects to know the potential harm and just how much life is going to change. Regardless of the fact a person signed for this, no one deserves their life being destroyed in these projects. It could be argued an easement holder deserves what is coming to them, especially those who have laughed off others' concerns in order to significantly financially benefit. Those opinions are the responsibility of each individual. The point of injustice here is the fact that there are those that are non participants living closer to turbines then some of those that signed. That is unacceptable. Also the fact there are many people who don’t live here at all and their choice to sign, put non participants living next to these monstrosities. This completely smashes the classic saying “You are free to choose, but you are not free from the consequence of your choice.” Freedom from consequence is literally what is happening here in some cases. There are people that do not live here and beyond property tax, do not contribute to this community yet we live with the repercussions of their choice to sign. They aren’t going to pay the higher electric bills, they won’t deal with the noise, shadow flicker, health affects, etc. So our concern remains for the people that actually live in this county, signers or not. Just because a person chooses to not acknowledge fact does not change the reality, it still remains fact. So what some people see as complaining is in reality fact based, data supporting, research derived, valid concerns. It is time for people to stop being defensive and listen to what the side across the aisle has been through and discovered along the way.
So what are some of these concerns? It is our intention over the next couple of months to reveal everything that has happened here leading up to current day. You may want to pay attention if you have never:
1. Attended a commissioners meeting
2. Attended a zoning meeting
3. Requested documents from MODOT
4. Requested documents from the Missouri Department of Conservation
5. Read through 4 years of County records including the EEZ board
6. Dug up Department of Defense documents
7. Were part of the lawsuit against the county in which 35 violations were pursued
8. Spoken with representatives from Terra Gen, Ameren or Blattner
9. Stopped in and talked to your County Assessor
10. Viewed a 12 page statement from a world renowned expert in infrasound about this project and what citizens in the footprint can expect
11. Read through hundreds of pages of Ameren documents and testimony referring to bill increase plans
12. Set up a timeline of over a year’s worth of county actions
This is only to name a few. It is our intention to share it all. It serves no purpose for people to not know the truth but it will be up to you to accept it. It is not our responsibility to have done the work to acquire all of the information, but experiencing the injustice first hand drives a person to seek the truth. The historical significance of this project needs to include what really happened, not what an easement holding county newspaper owner printed. It is hard to dispute facts when the documents are provided. Stay tuned.