RENEW, Clean Wisconsin seek to oppose anti-wind lawsuit
Environmental Groups Affirm Support for Manitowoc County Wind Farm
To challenge unfounded assertions that wind generators threaten the health and safety of nearby neighbors, Clean Wisconsin and RENEW are moving to intervene in a lawsuit challenging Manitowoc County’s approval last summer of a windpower installation in the Town of Mishicot.
Both organizations support the seven-turbine project proposed by Emerging Energies, a Wisconsin limited liability partnership, and view the lawsuit’s allegations that the turbines constitute a public nuisance as utterly without merit.
“Wisconsin agencies have reviewed far larger wind projects with the same setback distances and have concluded that they will not significantly affect the human environment,” said RENEW Wisconsin’s Michael Vickerman.
“No matter which jurisdiction the lawsuit is filed in,” Vickerman said, “wind farm opponents recycle the same unsubstantiated claims even though not one of their legal challenges has ever prevailed. They seem unable to distinguish fantasy from fact.”
Both RENEW and Clean Wisconsin championed the passage of the state’s clean energy law (Act 141), which will raise the renewable energy content of the state’s electricity supply to 10% by 2015. Governor Doyle, a strong supporter of renewable energy development, enacted the legislation in March.
Wind generation should account for more than two-thirds of the renewable generation leveraged by Act 141, Vickerman said. There are more than a dozen wind energy projects proposed in Wisconsin, ranging in size from a single turbine to nearly 100.
“We need to stand up for our state’s progressive energy policies and not let a few fearful people derail or delay worthy wind projects,” Vickerman said.
