As wind turbines are incapable of generating power on demand and wouldn’t last a second without massive subsidies, there is no ‘right’ place for them. Any power generation source that can’t deliver electricity on demand is pointless, so talk about appropriate siting is pure nonsense. Why bother?
Rent seekers and crony capitalists are the only ones pushing to jam these things in your backyard, but rural America is pushing back.
American farming communities clearly have the upper hand in the fight to save their homes and livelihoods from the wind and solar ‘industries’ intent on destroying them.
Rural Americans are on the warpath and refuse to become roadkill for the profiteers determined to destroy their peaceful and prosperous communities. The scale and success of their resistance has clearly caught the wind and solar ‘industries’ flat-footed.
Faced with their constituents’ growing fury, local governments have sided with them; introducing laws, for example, that brand “wind turbines a nuisance” (no surprise to anyone forced to live with these things grinding and thumping away in their backyard). And as Robert Bryce reports below, banning them outright.
Butler County, Ohio Bans Wind and Solar Projects in a Dozen Townships
Real Clear Energy
Robert Bryce
5 July 2022
The backlash against the encroachment of wind and solar projects continues. On June 23, the Butler County (Ohio) Board of Commissioners adopted a measure that designates a “restricted area” that prohibits “the construction of an economically significant wind farm, a large wind farm, and/or a large solar facility.” The measure, which passed unanimously, covers all unincorporated areas within a dozen townships in the county.
The vote is the latest example of local communities rejecting or restricting the growth of large renewable projects. According to an article by Denise G. Callahan, a reporter for the Journal-News, an outlet known as “Butler County’s Local News Now,” the commissioners enacted the measure after hearing from township representatives. Commissioner Cindy Carpenter told Callahan she understands as a public official she has a responsibility to consider ways of reducing reliance on fossil fuels, but she must also be responsive to township officials. Carpenter was quoted in the article as saying “We respect that they are the elected officials closest to the citizens.”
Adding the 12 townships (but not the Butler County commissioners’ vote) to the Renewable Rejection Database brings the total of wind energy rejections so far this year to 20. Since 2013, there have been 344 rejections or restrictions of wind projects across the U.S. in states from Maine to Hawaii.
As I have reported many times, the raging backlash against the renewable industry doesn’t fit the convenient narrative that wind and solar are “green” and that they are “cheaper” than traditional forms of energy production. These rejections are not being covered by The New York Times or National Public Radio, but they reflect the growing outrage in rural American towns and counties over the land grab that is being attempted by some of America’s biggest companies in the name of climate change.
Further, as siting wind and solar projects has gotten more difficult, big renewable companies are resorting to hardball legal tactics to intimidate location communities into accepting projects they do not want. For example, in May, Chicago-based Invenergy, the world’s largest privately held renewable energy company, sued Worth County, Iowa as part of an effort to force the county to accept a wind project the county doesn’t want. That lawsuit came after MidAmerican Energy, a subsidiary of corporate behemoth Berkshire Hathaway, sued Madison County, Iowa, the province known for its picturesque wooden bridges. (Invenergy refused to comment on their lawsuit against Worth County. In an email, a MidAmerican spokesman claimed the company is not trying to intimidate the county.)
Over the past few months, Iowa, Ohio, and Wisconsin have emerged as the epicenter of the rural backlash against Big Wind and, increasingly, Big Solar. Ohio is particularly notable because last year, Senate Bill 52 took effect. That measure allows counties to prohibit the construction of renewable projects. As reported by EnergyWire, “Policy support for renewables has been eroding in Ohio for a decade.” The erosion of support, of course, was due to surging local opposition to renewable projects.
But SB 52 also provides a clear example of the growing urban-rural divide when it comes to renewable energy policy. The bill, which was signed into law by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, (a Republican) passed through both chambers of the Ohio legislature but it did not get a single Democratic vote. In addition to giving counties final say over projects, the measure also requires renewable energy developers to go to the Ohio Power Siting Board for approval, a move that may give opponents a second venue in which they can kill proposed projects.
Now back to Butler County. A quick web search located the minutes of the June 23 meeting of the Butler County Board of Commissioners. The minutes show that the measure adopting the “Restricted Area in Butler County” includes “all unincorporated areas within Reily Township, Fairfield Township, Hanover Township, Liberty Township, Madison Township, Milford Township, Morgan Township, Oxford Township, Ross Township, St. Clair Township, Wayne Township, and West Chester Township.”
Butler County is the kind of place that doesn’t get much attention from elite academics, big media outlets, and climate activists. It’s a largely rural county located north of Cincinnati, along Ohio’s border with Indiana. The population of the county is less than 400,000. Butler County has 13 townships. Of those, 12 are included in the ban on new wind and solar.
I’ll conclude with another quote from Callahan’s coverage of the Butler County ban on large renewable projects. She quoted County Commissioner Cindy Carpenter, who said the county agreed to implement the ban because local township officials “speak to us as the voice of the citizens. So I have decided to support their request.”
Real Clear Energy
STOP THESE THINGS 
Why are they pushing wind farms? CO2? Well this is the biggest falsehood! John Kerry said 350 PPM is dangerous, my question is dangerous to whom or what? Plants? No ask any Greenhouse and they should tell you “Plants thrive when exposed to high contents of CO2 “ so not plants! People? I have been measuring CO2 since the 90’s, and have seen with large get togethers CO2 counts of over 2000 PPM with no harm to anyone. So long as our OX. Is near 20% humans don’t care what our Co2 level is. Global warming? The test that says CO2 holds heat was an experiment back in 1860, where a flask of air and a flask f Co2 was placed in the sun, both having thermometer’s in them, and the CO2 got hotter than air. The summary said, both Co2 and moisture holds heat. Well no kidding, any and all substances get hotter in the sun than does air. Including trees! Do we cut down trees then? Both CO2 and CO combined make up a .42 of 1% of our total atmosphere. And let’s not forget without CO2 we would not live on this planet. It is the food of life. It comes from the earth and goes back into the earth. My theory is, when CO2 is washed back into the earth the plants eat/absorb carbon, which would release the 2 molecules of O?
I wish I had the ability to measure the CO2 at the last presidential speech, I’ll bet the room was over 3,000 PPM and unfortunately no one died.
Who are these scientists? They are idiots!
“…a clear example of the growing urban-rural divide when it comes to renewable energy policy”
Not just renewable energy policy!