What if it's happening too close to your home?

Make noise.... Call the press and ask for coverage, but be prepared for unbalanced and possibly biased reporting. Use such opportunities to get your own rebuttals printed. Lawn signs are a good way to express your opinion and will go a long way to reduce any intimidation that may be keeping others from doing the same. They can be home-made or ordered and purchased in bulk to reduce expenses. If someone in your group has the expertise, creating a web site of your own is also a great idea, and sends a clear message to the developer that you mean business.

Make your letters count. When you write to your representatives or your local newspapers, send copies to wind advocates and proponents to let them all know about your efforts. Copy to the national media as well. If these groups and individuals know that you are regularly addressing all of them with credible information, it will make it that much harder for them to ignore you. In fact, while they may not respond, you can be sure that you're getting their attention as they wonder who else on your list might be starting to take you seriously.

Sponsor and advertise an 'appraisal meeting'. Most towns provide meeting places for a nominal fee, and the (licensed and state-certified) appraiser that you invite will likely provide his services for free, since it's an opportunity for him to advertise himself and/or his firm. He should advise residents about how to document the pre-development value of their homes, and explain how his testimony in court might be useful post-development should that become necessary. Developers may think twice before jeopardizing the property values of an entire community that's taken these precautions. (If you are interested in attending an appraisal meeting in Bovina please email us.)

In addition, document your quality of life as you're experiencing it now. Video-tape your views, and the natural sounds and noise levels that are normal for your area. Do this at various times of the day and season. Show how the sunlight affects the rooms in your house at dusk and dawn. Document your TV, cordless phone, and cell reception. Have the health department record the quality and quantity of your well water, and verify the condition of any local streams and creeks. Document the birds and wildlife that frequent the area, and the amount of traffic that you currently experience in the neighborhood. And most important...make sure the local developers along with those who've leased their land to them, know that you and others in the community are doing this. As long as you don't keep it a secret, this documentation is as powerful a 'preventive' measure as it might be later for proof after the fact.

Find out who's for and who's against this proposal on your town board. Start thinking about getting new people elected at the next opportunity. Find out who the possible leasing landowners are and make them aware of the pitfalls they could face, not only with their neighbors but with the wind developers, as well. NWW has various documents posted that highlight many of the troublesome areas on typical wind contracts. Find out who the developer is and who's backing them financially, and write to inform them that they are not welcome in your town and will be resisted regardless of any discord it might cause.

Make sure local officials are made aware of the true scope of the global controversy surrounding commercial wind power development, and don't allow a developer's possible claims about your "selfishness regarding your views" to go unchallenged. It's just a distraction from the real, and much more disturbing issues. The NWW web site is updated regularly with current news and articles from major publications throughout the country and from around the world...and if you make it available to those who are obliged to be concerned...with time, this compounding news will make an impression.

You might find that you're expected to suggest alternatives to wind energy. If so, suggesting conservation is probably your best bet. When you show that replacing light bulbs or reducing hot water use would equal the same amount in saved energy than the proposed project could produce, it starts to give listeners a true picture of just how little usable power is actually generated by industrial wind turbines. Documents to help you do this can be found in National Wind Watch's resource library.

Often the money that's offered by wind developers can blind an entire community to everything else. Showing how much the developer ISN"T paying in taxes, or showing that pilot payments are offset by reduced property taxes from homes that don't get built or from school budgets that are reduced at the state level because of the extra local revenue...can all be useful tactics, and if you're not sure about the specific numbers relating to your own situation, then you need to do some research and find out.

Please visit NWW daily for the latest in news and stories that may help you win your local battle, and if you have other ideas or strategies that have worked to keep wind development out of your community, please share them with us so that we can spread the word. The more united we are in this effort, the better chance we have to curb the thoughtless and damaging expansion of this deficient, mediocre and completely unnecessary form of commercial electricity generation.

On the prairie, for instance, and in the mountains wind power is sited on high points and ridge lines which are visible for many miles. Sound becomes less of a problem with distance from the turbines (though one must not let oneself be lulled by talk of decibels only, because there is concern as well about another sort of vibration which needs to be investigated), but visual pollution is a grave concern, and the destructive process of constructing an industrial facility in difficult and fragile terrain can result in the degradation of natural areas which have remained undeveloped and are thus a source of the prosperity of rural, remote and wild regions.

Just as near neighbors of turbines must try to reach people living in the area, town planners and local officials who grant permission for new construction, etc., those who oppose a more distant but highly visible power plant proposal must reach the people and agencies which will affect the final decision. This means planning boards who may be totally unprepared to deal with wind power; it means county commissioners who will need to know that an industrial plant of this size will bring little value to the county, compared to the jobs which will be lost when the area loses its rural or wild appeal; it means keeping an eye on the legislation being proposed at the state level because wind developers will try again and again to get bills passed which will force wind power to be built.

When such legislation is proposed wind power opponents will have to educate the legislators about the true costs and benefits of wind power by sending them information and speaking with them and testifying before the committees debating the bills; it means, perhaps, proposing legislation which would allow wind power plants to be built only if they can be demonstrated to be cost effective, if the promoters can prove the inflated claims usually made for wind power, etc.

State agencies are often unaware of wind power's problematic side, and ways must be found to approach them; it means talking with the local state representative and senator, and the governor, all of whom will have a say and must not hear only from the American Wind Energy Association; It also means presenting your reservations about wind power to environmental groups which wield power in your area and/or state, and this may be the most frustrating task of all because the pro-wind propaganda appeals to their goals, and often fiscal analysis, for example, is brushed aside because their initial reaction is that there are more important environmental considerations.

It is possible to reach those who are open-minded, because the facts are on our side, and it is often less difficult to talk to conservationists and preservationists, who understand the destructive and disruptive effects of wind power; it means talking to local and state groups who would be affected. For instance, realtors, construction firms who build second homes or specialize in renovation, snow mobile clubs and salesmen, chambers of commerce, organizations promoting tourism, etc.; it means (by no means lastly!) contacting organizations like hiking clubs or local biking clubs whose pleasure in their natural surroundings will be diminished or totally ruined if a wind power plant were built.