Years later, Wisconsin wind farm fears fail to materialize
From an article by Rick Chamberlin in Midwest Energy News:
LINCOLN TOWNSHIP, Wis. — When the 31 Vestas wind turbines in northeast Kewaunee County, Wisconsin began producing electricity in the summer of 1999, a moderate Republican named Tommy Thompson was a few months into his fourth term as governor. Relative peace reigned between the parties in the legislature, statewide unemployment was at a record low and the Dow had just topped 10,000 for the first time.
But in Lincoln and Red River townships, where the turbines were erected, the climate was anything but mild. Residents’ tempers had been flaring since before April 1998 when Madison Gas & Electric (MGE) hosted the first meetings in the community about its plans to build 11.2 megawatts of wind power in the area. Wisconsin Public Service (WPS), a Green Bay-based utility, had also announced its intention to build a large-scale wind farm in the area.
Despite the heat, the two utilities found more than enough landowners in the two towns willing to host all 31 turbines, and the town boards soon voted to approve conditional use permits for the projects. But pressure from several vocal landowners convinced the Lincoln town board in February of 1999 to amend its zoning ordinance to require board affirmation of all applications for future conditional use permits. A few months later, both townships adopted 18-month moratoriums on future wind farm sitings.
“We had some real knock-down-drag-outs,” said Mick Sagrillo, who chaired a committee charged with evaluating the impact of the projects on residents and proposing any changes to the permit process. More than anything, Sagrillo said, people feared change. . . .
A 2003 study by the Renewable Energy Policy Project (REPP) found “no significant evidence that the presence of the wind farms had a negative effect on residential property values” in the communities closest to the Kewaunee County turbines. . . .
When asked if dollars promised to landowners and the townships have materialized, Jerabek said, “I haven’t had any landowners complain that they haven’t received their lease payment.”
An excellent video tells the same story.
renewenergyblog.wordpress.com 
Didn’t MG&E buy out several neighbors?
El Rucio (@ElRucioDos)
December 23, 2011
Another example of facts trumpeting the fears drummed up by the Koch brothers.
Shecky Vegas
December 23, 2011
Are the Koch brothers involved in Wisconsin battles, too? Or are they mentioned only to trumpet fear (one fear to trump another’s)?
El Rucio (@ElRucioDos)
December 25, 2011
The Koch brothers have poured hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions, into Wisconsin. Unfortunately, anti-wind groups don’t have to disclosre their sources of funs. Plenty of documentation shows that David Koch put at least one million into fighting the wind project off of Cape Cod.
edblume
December 25, 2011
It’s clear that Koch bros. back Gov. Walker (for a variety of reasons) and it is well known that they back the opposition to Cape Wind (one of them lives there, I believe), but is there evidence of their actually funding anti-wind groups in Wisconsin? It seems unlikely that, eg, Lynda Barry of Better Plan Wisconsin is taking their money.
PS: It was WPS that bought out neighbors in Kewaunee Cty.
El Rucio (@ElRucioDos)
December 27, 2011