Wind farm opponents plan forum: Organizers want landowners, others informed

WALNUT – Before anyone in  Walnut signs any deals with any wind farm company, a forum will be held Sunday to discuss how commercial turbines could impact the community, one organizer said.

Rockford-based environmental lawyer Rick Porter is scheduled to talk about the long-term effects wind farms can have. Porter is the attorney representing 39 DeKalb residents suing to block a 151-turbine wind farm that straddles the DeKalb/Lee county border.

“Their voices are so disjointed,” Larry Gerdes, the forum’s co-organizer, said of many landowners who sign lease agreements for commercial wind farms.

“We want to make sure they’re informed and can speak together. ... These communities need to understand the long-term implications.”

In the fine print that, Gerdes said, often gets overlooked when wind farms move in are:

- Two widespread movements to either diminish or entirely do away with property taxes for turbine operators.

- The overall economic feasibility of wind farms.

- Documented, but widely disputed, health effects of long-term proximity to wind farms.

- A scheduled 2011 expiration of Illinois’ tax guidelines for assessment and taxation of commercial wind turbines.

“A lot of these are sheltered projects, immediately sold to unconcerned, huge international businesses,” Gerdes said.

“What sounds like a wonderful project for renewable energy turns out to be something that not only does not provide the farmer a guaranteed income stream, it also will not guarantee the revenue stream guaranteed the county and the schools,” Gerdes said.

Larry Gerdes lives and works in Atlanta, but owns land just south of Walnut and would like to return home in retirement, he said.

To attend

A free forum for anyone interested in the possible downsides of commercial wind development will be held at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Walnut Community Center on Main Street.