Time to stand up to big wind farm companies

I am responding to the lead story in the Sept. 21 edition of the Telegraph titled “Wind farm company sues Lee.”

State law allows any incorporated village to regulate wind farms within a 1.5-mile radius from their city limits. So Florida Power & Light Energy Illinois Wind LLC tried to “buy off” the village of Lee with $60,000 in an attempt to get them to allow FPL to put up to six turbines within the 1.5-mile zone.

The village board voted unanimously to enact this ordinance and rejected FPL’s bid to put up six turbines within the 1.5-mile zone from their town. What a joke. When FPL did not get its way, it threw a temper tantrum and sued the village board.

I urge Mr. Boris and the village board not to back down from these people. These wind companies have no shame; they openly tried to “buy off” the town of Lee with $60,000.

The worst thing is that a huge amount of that money they throw around like water is our tax money. That’s right – a huge portion of the money they get is from government subsidies. If it were not for these subsidies, they wouldn’t be here, because the wind here does not blow hard enough.

These wind companies are trying to run our state. In Winnebago County, Navitas is trying to write an ordinance for the county that would allow it to put up wind turbines on any land zoned agriculture and not have to have a public hearing. We must stand up to these people, or they will run the entire state and put wind farms wherever they want.

I have tried to tell the public what kind of people we are dealing with, but it has fallen on deaf ears. Maybe now it is clear what kind of people we are dealing with. They already have 145 turbines and are willing to spend thousands and thousands of dollars and sue the small village of Lee for $200,000 more just to get six more turbines.

Does this tell you what kind of money is involved here? Does this little episode look like the work of “nice” people? Rather than respect the village of Lee’s wishes, they stoop to the lowest tactics to get what they want.