Editor, The Times:

Damage controllers are sugarcoating and rationalizing Gov. Christine Gregoire's dangerous decision to allow the Kittitas County wind farm [ "Gregoire approves wind-power project" Local News, Sept. 19].

Kittitas County is pro wind farms; they support alternate energy and love the tax revenues. The location that Gregoire approved was denied in part because Horizon refused to agree to 2,500-foot setbacks from homes (in Europe the minimum setback is one mile). Horizon half-heartedly submitted incomplete information and refused to submit prescribed information.

Horizon -- a billion-dollar, foreign-owned corporation -- bullied their way to the deal. There are thousands of acres of land in Kittitas County that are approved for use as a wind farm; areas that would not adversely affect private residences. Never in the history of Washington state has a governor overruled the decisions of a local government. This is a most dangerous precedence coming from a governor that adamantly complains about federal interference with "her" state.

When Kittitas County approved the Wildhorse wind farm, Gregoire said the project would be the model for future projects because they have local government and citizen approval. She apparently changed models and lied to her constituents. Her decision places all counties' ability to make land-use decisions at risk. It reeks of totalitarianism, doesn't it?

-- Jess Nelson, Woodinville