Moratorium on wind turbines
Dear Editor,
The following is the speech that I gave at the Clinton County Planning and Zoning Board meeting on January 22, 2016 that I would like to share with your readers.
Mr. Chairman, members of the board,
Mary Jo Sloan, and I have lived in Clinton County for all of my life. I want to thank you for giving me an opportunity to speak tonight regarding the amendment for a moratorium for the wind turbine application. I also want to thank all of you for serving on this board and giving your time for the residents of this county. I am in support of the moratorium. Your job as members of the Zoning and Planning Board is to protect the health, safety, and the general welfare of the people of Clinton County. Most of us live here for the quiet rural environment and the beauty of our county. You will be making a decision that will certainly change the quality of life for all of us. This change will be for the rest of our lives. The contracts that a few landowners have signed are for 90 years. Stop and think about that for a minute. 90 years. You have a very big decision to make.
You need time to study, read, investigate, make phone calls to people, and I hope take a field trip or two to see some industrial wind turbine complexes. Look around the area for vacant homes, shadow flicker, listen to the noise. Pay attention to the landscape. Ask yourself is this going to preserve and protect the quality of life for the people in Clinton County? This decision cannot be made in haste. We are all depending on you to do your homework and to do it well.
Let me tell you a little about my quality of life that I want you to protect. We built a new house about 10 years ago. We built in the same spot our old house was in and then we tore it down. Why didn’t we move to another location? Because of the view. I have the best view in Clinton County and I would like to invite all of you out to enjoy the view this spring. The grass will be that spring green and we will have black baby calves running in the pasture both in front and in back of the house. I don’t have a curtain on any of the windows in my house. Why? Again the view-I want to be able to see the deer, wild turkeys, birds, coyotes, and all of the other wildlife and nature from inside the house. I want you to take your time before you make a decision that could destroy my quality of life. The moratorium will allow all of you the time to do the needed research and to make fair and just decisions. Earlier this month we had a very rosy picture painted for us by NextEra. We all know why everything was so rosy. It’s all about the money. It’s all about the government subsidies. I hope that you will check their facts and their studies. They were all hand picked by NextEra to paint this rosy picture. You know if it sounds too good to be true it probably is. You can’t assume that they are accurate. Will the schools really receive the amount of money that we are being told?? Will NextEra really fix and maintain the roads and bridges that the school buses will travel on? Find out-do your research. This will take a lot of time and the moratorium is needed to review and update our ordinances if the residents of Clinton County are to be protected.
NextEra said they would plant shrubs and trees or put awnings on our windows to hide the wind turbines. That is a joke. I have a pine tree in my front yard that is over 150 years old and about 80 feet tall. That tree won’t hide an industrial wind turbine that is 500 feet tall and neither will any tree or shrub that NextEra would plant. So again they painted a very rosy picture.
The wind ordinances for Clinton County are out dated and they need to be amended to protect the health, safety, and the quality of life for the residents of Clinton County. We all know that the people who are here promoting this industrial wind turbine complex don’t live here. I don’t believe they don’t care about our health, safety or quality of life. It’s all about the money. I loved the board’s question to the NextEra’s presenter earlier this month, “How close is your house to a wind turbine?” I believe his answer was -2 states away. I think that pretty well says it all. Please adopt the moratorium so that you can consider amendments to our current requirements for issuing special use permits for industrial wind turbines in Clinton County.
Thank you for your time.
Mary Jo Sloan
Plattsburg, Mo.
