Who are we?  We are a group of citizens living predominantly in Logan and Champaign Counties of Ohio.  We have formed an independent citizen interest group because our community is under siege by international industrial wind power conglomerates who want to turn our peaceful, residential and agricultural neighborhoods into one large manufacturing area.

No protection for dozens of issues faced elsewhere.  The problem is that these wind companies want to erect turbines in our community in the wrong places, located without regard for the safety of others, and built with the country’s weakest zoning regulations.

These are local issues.  Although many government agencies are promoting wind turbines, the fact is that our local communities have the constitutional power to permit, regulate and/or deny such an industry.  Not the governor, the legislature, the PUCO, nor the federal government have the right to force wind turbines to be built here.

Make no mistake – wind turbines installations are a major industry and need to be regulated as such.  These companies are not our friendly neighbors wanting to put up a storage building.  They cannot be trusted to do the right thing when our regulations are too weak to address the issues – it is a business to them.  Let’s make proper zoning of them a critical business to us too.

What is needed are time to conduct research and complete studies to help us rationally evaluate the pros and cons of this industry in our community; and reasonable people develop rational evaluations and create appropriate regulations to protect all of us.

Why are we fighting wind turbines?  The governor wants them.  Other politicians think they are great.  You see wind turbines on television nearly every day.  They seem to be the poster child for all people and companies wanting to appear to be GREENER than anyone else.  There are several monumental issues to consider – is it the right technology for our area?  Do wind turbines belong in residential areas – or are they better located away from highly populated areas?

We do know there is plenty wrong with the way this industry comes into communities like ours.  Stealth is their number one operating policy – they quietly seek out quiet countryside's with the hopes they will find hungry property owners who will lease their lands with promises of income for 30 years or more --from typically under productive acres.  One can begin to see why this prospect could be initially enticing!

They are in a hurry to get turbines erected before the US federal government looks at why France has ceased subsidizing wind turbines. We deserve to have local zoning regulations that adequately protect all land owners.  It is wrong to encumber future generations with giant structures that are so weakly regulated.  Proper zoning is critical to the success of such ventures, and even highly responsible companies need to have local regulations that will ensure their prompt repair, removal upon disuse, recourse provisions for citizens in the event they encounter problems like excessive noise, shadow flicker and electronic signal interferences. There are no height restrictions in the amendments – current towers are 500’ tall.  What height will they be in 5 or 10 years?  These regulation also don’t properly protect the townships and county governments from damages to roads from excessive traffic and weights during construction, so our taxes could be increased to pay for their repairs.  The amendment has not even mentioned the issues of new electric transmission lines, eminent domain for those lines, access roads, and the substation which will be necessary to accept the electricity generated.