Testimony from Ohio Power Siting Board staffer Stuart Siegfried on Wednesday in Columbus left no doubt that Champaign County is a lost little dog in the state's fledgling process to begin certifying industrial scale wind utilities in Ohio. Siegfried showed a disturbing lack of understanding of OPSB's own process with regard to determining whether to certify Buckeye Wind's application to site 70 wind turbines of up to 492 feet in height on Champaign County's east side.

Black Fork Wind LLC, the project name of the wind farm planned for the Crestline/Shelby area, has filed for waivers to Ohio Administrative Codes to allow them to cut corners in the development of this industry in Richland and Crawford counties. ...This issue concerns me very much and I hope everyone (both in and out of the proposed site) will do their research.

There is a large wind turbine project called Black Fork Wind Farm that consists of 112 turbines 400 feet tall with three 100-foot blades to be placed in an area bounded by the west edge of Shelby on the east, Hazelbrush Road to the north, Hook Road to the south towards Crestline and extending on the west past Tiro towards New Washington. This is a beautiful rural area including Shelby Airport and a KOA campground that will be transformed into an industrial installation.

The experts say electricity produced by lake-based wind turbines would cost three times more than that produced by land turbines, and nearly eight times more than electricity from existing coal-fired plants. But Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason says we have a lot to lose if we don't make the big bet. Just what would that be?

But wind energy is an industry just the same, and it's wise to regulate it like any other. That's why the city of Cleveland was smart this week to consider a new zoning ordinance sponsored by City Councilmen Matt Zone and Joe Cimperman, which is aimed at regulating the size, location and appearance of land-based turbines. Not everyone loves Big Wind.

From a developer's standpoint, it makes sense to put up turbines out in the lake near Toledo. From a bird's perspective, it doesn't. Western Lake Erie sits in the path of two of North America's most important flyways. Here's a stat for you: One billion birds.

When it concerns energy policy, "alternative" energy sources are currently all the rage. It appears as if most of the pet projects that are proposed to solve our energy problems are related to wind-power turbines. ...Why are T. Boone Pickens and other venture-capital investors so interested in wind power? Well, the answer is obvious - money. The electric utility companies are required to buy any generated energy and the price is preset at the current wholesale price.

However, wind energy is not the panacea that its proponents claim. The true costs of wind energy include more than the upfront capital of $3 million per windmill, leases and noise pollution. The fact is the wind does not blow continuously. Consequently, redundant generating capacity must come from sources such as coal, oil and natural gas. The costs of operating and maintaining these plants at less than capacity must be considered.

The first issue is the high cost of wind power, which is about 2.5 to three times the cost of coal-generated power. Large wind-power projects exist only because of large government subsidies. Otherwise, wind power would be restricted to a few applications where the physical isolation of the electricity demand precludes extending the transmission network to the site. The other major issue is the intermittency of wind power. Even on the best of sites, wind turbines generate usable power less than 30 percent of the time ...T. Boone Pickens' claim that wind power will reduce the need for natural gas in electricity generation is spectacularly wrong.

The truth, never denied but certainly understated, is that power from renewable sources probably will cost more, not less. Still, the environmental and health costs posed by conventional generating fuels could drop as renew- able-energy production rises. ...The bill creates an Ohio Renewable Energy Authority, guaranteed $102.5 million in public money through mid-2018, possibly much more, through a complicated formula. The agency could spend up to 6 percent of its cash for "administrative purposes." That's a lot of paper clips. The measure would also exempt Renewable Energy Authority money from the General Assembly's budgeting power, removing a crucial Columbus check and balance. Husted said he'd be OK with subjecting the authority to General Assembly budgeting. That's a good start - but just that.

Wind-energy companies have set their sights on Ohio's high ground, so Morrow County commissioners are trying to stay ahead of the game by working out regulations for wind farms before a major controversy blows into town. As more townships and counties consider possible wind-energy developments, state legislators might have to take up the matter in the interest of consistent statewide rules. Officials in Logan and Champaign counties proposed wind-farm rules only after developers had proposed deals to local landowners, and would-be sellers and unhappy neighbors had formed opposing camps. The new rules quickly were challenged by a referendum petition in Logan County by opponents who don't think the rules are restrictive enough. The referendum was ruled off Tuesday's ballot because of a procedural error, but the acrimony isn't likely to fade.

"The next year is crucial - that's when we'll know if this will work for us or not," said county Prosecutor Bill Mason, head of a local task force pushing the proposal. "But we also understand that there's always going to be some skepticism, so we want to give the public a realistic view they can support." Wind-power skeptics have questioned whether anchoring turbines in fresh water would be particularly difficult because of Lake Erie's winter ice. Some environmentalists have decried siting wind turbines in migratory bird lanes.

Ohio lawmakers need to focus on creating imaginative, affordable incentives for solar and other alternative energy if they hope to lure manufacturers to Ohio in an increasingly competitive enviornment for such business. Ohio House Speaker Jon Husted says he's seen the light on solar and wind power for Ohio. It couldn't have happened at a more opportune time. ...The Senate's ill-defined requirement for 25 percent renewables and "advanced energy" by 2025 - as long as it's not too expensive - offers wiggle room the size of Lake Erie. That's not likely to mark Ohio as the next big market for wind and solar.

Twenty percent of our electricity from wind requires 10,000-plus turbines on a land mass of 42,000 square miles. Spread evenly across Ohio, we'd see two to nine industrial turbines everywhere we looked. Twice the height of a large radio tower, their enormous blades cast disturbing repetitive flickering shadows across everything up to .75 miles away, and can be noisy enough to disturb sleep in hilly regions. Wind energy costs $2 million per megawatt (MW), and 20 percent of our state's electricity today would require over 20,000 MW of wind. That's a $40 billion dollar investment with no electricity when we need it most - on windless summer days. Do we want to foot the bill for this inefficiency?

Let's look at the reality, not the hype. Ohio and every other state east of the Mississippi that is not on the ocean is just barely on the ragged edge of acceptability for a few turbines in a few high places that are already lived on, farmed on and gazed at for their beauty. This is a railroad that needs to be sidetracked. Legislating 20 percent of our power from wind won't make it any more feasible; it will just make us throw our money at it until we cry uncle.

How comforting to learn that your County Board considers you an enemy. To learn it feels that it must protect itself from you. To learn that when it extends its arms it is to embrace outsiders whose only interest is to make a profit from your misery. To learn that "home seller" protection and "non-participating landowners" protection really means "County Board" protection.