Industrial wind projects have enormous long-term financial and environmental consequences. As such it behooves us to fully examine all the pros and cons before making an irreversible 20-plus year commitment.
Surprisingly, it’s relatively easy to do a proper investigation, as WiseEnergy.org is a superior website of free, independent, science-based information on energy issues. Every Iowa citizen should carefully examine this material to become better informed about the industrial wind issue.
This is the website for Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions (AWED) — which is a network of over 700 PhD scientists and other experts, committed to genuine science.
AWED believes that our technical (e.g. energy) policies should be based on real science. For example, before alternative energy sources are added to the electric grid, they should have to scientifically prove that they are a net societal benefit. (That would mean proving that they are a net technical, economic, and environmental asset.)
Unfortunately, none of that has been done for industrial wind energy, as legislators are implementing wind for political (not Scientific) reasons. Worse yet, studies by independent experts conclude that wind energy is actually a net technical, economic and environmental detriment!
But what about the wind energy marketers claim that wind projects will be a financial windfall to a host community? On WiseEnergy.org "Wind Economics 101" lists 10 different areas where studies from independent experts, indicate that a wind project will likely be a local financial liability.
Who in the County (or the State) is comprehensively and objectively evaluating the consequences on both sides of the economic equation? No one! It makes no sense to go ahead with these industrial projects unless we know the true NET financial impact.
Lastly, if you are a landowner who is considering signing a wind easement contract (or if you have already signed one), this presentation identifies 40-plus possible adverse legal and financial consequences for entering into such agreements.
A word to the wise: if your primary source of information on wind energy is from wind salespeople and their promoters (e.g. the Iowa Environmental Council and Iowa Policy Project), then you are NOT being objectively and fully informed. A much superior alternative is the