Fight over wind turbines in an Ohio county proves contentious; countywide vote will decide fate of wind project - Entrepreneur Generations

On Nov. 8, north-central Ohio's Crawford County will host a countywide referendum on whether to allow an energy company to build 50 to 60 wind turbines, each 650 feet high, across the county, Kris Maher reports for the Wall Street Journal. Discussions over the coming vote have grown contentious.

Wind turbines, built by Apex Clean Energy,
in Michigan. (Gere Goble/Telegraph-Forum)

“If you’re pro-wind and an anti-winder knows that you’re pro-wind, you don’t talk to them,” Dan Bute, a fiscal specialist with a county agency who supports the wind project, told Maher. Supporters of the project see it as a way to increase revenue through land leases and payments to the county — which according to pro-wind billboards around the county could be $2.7 million annually. Opponents say the turbines "will disrupt rural life, damage property values and put birds and other wildlife at risk," Maher writes.

The referendum comes after the county's commissioners passed a resolution in May blocking the development of wind farms in the county, Gere Goble reported for the Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum, the newspaper based in the county's seat. However, a political action group backed by Apex Clean Energy, the company seeking to build the turbines, secured enough signatures on a petition asking for a countywide referendum — which will be the first of its kind in the state.

Apex's wind turbine projects have been sticking points in other parts of Ohio as well. The company is appealing an Ohio Power Sitting Board decision that denied the company the opportunity to build a wind farm in Sandusky and Seneca counties, Daniel Carson of the Fremont News-Messenger reported in July.

from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/nlvoxCY Fight over wind turbines in an Ohio county proves contentious; countywide vote will decide fate of wind project - Entrepreneur Generations

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