Wolfe Island has, in years, been roiled by division and debate over the wind turbines that now adorn (or deface, in the view of some) the island. And it isn't just there that controversy has swirled around the wind farm industry. Across Ontario, plans to erect turbines in rural communities are running into stiff headwinds. ...The truth is, though, that the wind farm industry is a young one, and we don't know that much yet about the health impacts.

Now for the disturbing bits. The renewable energy field experts on the panel that evening were present to offer their views on the future of "green energy." Mr. Slaymaker, a representative of a wind turbine project builder/operator, claimed that those who object to wind turbines need only to be "educated" to turn them to the wind side. I, my wife, and dozens of other Stephenson County citizens who oppose the wind turbine project proposed for Lancaster Township have spent the past six months "educating" ourselves and the only thing that's turning is our stomachs.

There are issues with noise, vibration and shadow flicker all having detrimental effects on people and animals.

What unites these localities in our long nation? Yes, wind power opposition. Sometimes it's the residents who protest, but all the more frequently even the municipalities themselves resist, and say no to planned wind power construction. Earlier this spring, Tingsryd municipality halted, for the time being, plans for a wind power station south of Växjö. In Klippan, the Conservative politicians put the brakes on. In the north, in Ragunda and Strömsund, the municipality, the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, a Sami village [translator note: Sami are Laplanders; many make a living by raising reindeer], and several private individuals joined to block a planned wind power park consisting of 450 turbines.

Is the proposed wind-energy farm on Wolfe Island an example of a community making environmentally sound choices? The honeybee story has made me skeptical. Are decisions being made because they are good for the environment and the residents of Wolfe Island or because the project is going to line the pockets of the people involved? Are people so anxious to make money they won't wait for an environmental assessment? Has anyone taken into consideration the location of the turbines and their impact on the people who live near the site? Do those residents have a say?

Here's what we think: This wind farm is a game-changer. This cannot be understated. The Chokecherry Sierra Madre wind farm redefines Carbon County and, although it provides short- and, arguably, long-term monitory gains, it doesn't furnish enough benefits to raze our outdoors culture.

DENVER - The House passed and sent to the Senate a bill that attempts to lure more wind farms to northeastern Colorado. The vote was 54-9 earlier this week.

That's not good enough for Lisa Betts, who is calling on the county to increase the setback to two kilometres. She feels the setback should be 10 times the height of the turbine. Only then would nearby residents not have to listen to the turbine blades or be bothered by shadows cast by the turning blades. While she may or may not be crying wolf, we have to be sure there is sufficient evidence to support the county's proposed setbacks before it ends up with egg on its face. After all, it's a situation that's going to keep coming up as more developers look at the county as a location for wind farms.

The Newfound Lake area is a perfect example of green energy gone amuck. All it takes is a foreign, for- profit company and opportunistic landowners. All other N.H. citizens, from business and homeowners in a 100-mile radius suffer the consequences. Every town, ridge, and lake in N.H. could be next. This is a horrifying example of a lack of regulations and a state that needs a comprehensive energy plan.

Wind Energy Ordinance has opened up for 22 of these to be built inside the city limits. This means that not just one neighborhood will be affected, but neighborhoods from Quail Run to homes near Low Street could be impacted. Apparently, the city is poised to repeat the same mistake it did with the landfill. And with the adoption of the conditions of the GCA, it will be nearly powerless to protect the citizens from the negative effects of these huge towers.

My wife and I own a home on Backbone Mountain, which is located next to the first turbine in the proposed Roth Rock wind power project. It will be 1,185 feet from my bedroom to this 476 foot tall industrial structure, which is nearly as tall as the Washington monument but only two "monument lengths" away. Except in this case it's not a benign stone structure. It's mechanical with large, noisy, and dangerous moving parts. This turbine will also be located within 378 feet of two other lots in our subdivision.

We hope other Virginia localities watching these proceedings will profit from learning that currently unreliable wind power is green only for those who are allowed to siphon off government money at taxpayers’ expense and that as this high-cost energy is fed back into the grid, it will result in higher, not lower, electric bills for users. And we hope the cumulative anguish of Highlanders expressed during the hearings will give other decision-makers pause when they consider the real costs of wrongly-sited wind power.

It would be a lot easier to choose up sides in the Columbia Gorge wind farm disputes if the capitalists wanted to dig open pit mines or put up oil derricks and extract resources from the land and then truck or pipe them away for decades to come, risking erosion, spills or explosions. If that were the case, it would be easier to spew venom and spread fear about money-grubbing, land-raping operations planned along the border of the nation's first national scenic area. ...[T]he scenic area was created almost 22 years ago, and by now its protection ought to be a sacred duty and universal desire. We should be beyond the point of nibbling around the edges of the law and violating its spirit. Erecting giant towers, seven of which would be partly visible from parts of the gorge floor, seems a violation of that spirit.

At what point does it become a matter of personal responsibility to stand up and speak out to preserve the priceless beauty and health of a God-given resource that once irreversibly damaged by corporate and political greed can never be replaced? ...Now after the introduction of industrial-scale wind turbines and high voltage switchyards and transformers to Sheldon, and the dumping of thousands of tons of industrial waste from the 100 year-old industrial steel site into the agricultural fields where food is grown or cattle graze ... we choose to exercise our rights as a democratic society and therefore stand up and speak out as necessary to preserve this land that is the Orangeville that we love.

Just as in medicine the rule is to "first do no harm," the wind industry should not be erecting wind turbines in populated areas until all the data are in. Siting of industrial-size turbines in and near neighborhoods has potential of doing harm to those at risk. So don't permit it. Some places are just not good industrial wind turbine sites.

Our sense is that the laws pertaining to neighbor v. neighbor nuisances were never intended, or even conceived of, to respond equitably to an issue as far beyond "public nuisances" as this. David's farm is suddenly bordered by Goliath's score of 490-foot windmills and his construction crews numbering in the dozens, with Goliath complaining that David is a nuisance and finding a judge who agrees and enjoins David from using his own property.

I live next to a neighbour who has a contract with Hydro One to reverse her meter using a wind turbine on a 100-foot frontage, in-town lot. Depending on wind direction the ensuing whining of loose moving parts affects my sleep, my appetite, limits the use of my backyard and no doubt will diminish my property value.

Why would Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker propose to increase the setbacks between wind turbines and property lines to 1,800 feet? Because the newest industrial wind turbines in our state are 50 stories tall.

My grandmother, Agnes, lived in Monterey Township at the turn of the 20th century. Her favorite saying was, “a place for everything and everything in its place.” What do you think she would say of the placement of gigantic wind turbines on the hillsides and in the fields of her beautiful Monterey? ...would she say, “Go for it. It’s progress and it is for the good of the country?” I don't believe that she would.

In returning Shear Wind's initial Environment Assessment registration document for more information, the prior minister of environment, Mark Parent, afforded Shear Wind, Inc. a full year to get it right. Instead, they responded in less than two months with a document that is still incomplete and now abuses the related technical literature. Large blocks of text (100 words and more) in the health section are essentially identical to text in a report authored by the Ohio Department of Health. There are neither quotation marks nor any attributions to the original work.