Complex and confusing taxation systems make it easier for wind’s opponents, some citing misinformation, to say that wind has fallen short of its promises.
After NextEra proposed a wind farm in Greeley County, Nebraska two years ago, Robert Bernt, a dairy farm owner in the area, helped to mobilize community members against the idea., arguing the wind farm would “fragment” the community, by lowering property values and leaving “decaying blades in our landfills.”Bernt estimated Greeley is the eighth county where he has fought a wind project. “In every case, people were upset because they felt they weren’t told the truth,” Bernt said.
, these economic arguments have at times been drowned out by health and safety concerns, as well as accusations that wind is taking away from a local economy in other ways. Local laws effectively blocking wind or solar projects are increasingly common, said Matthew Eisenson, of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University.
“Every fear, every misinformation that you can imagine gets put on the barn wall,” Hansen said. “We have rural communities who are going out of their way to pursue agendas that are counterproductive to their own interests.” Even presented with facts about wind power and its subsequent tax benefits, however, people don’t always buy in. That’s something Kathy Croker saw during her 25 years as an appraiser and 17 as an assessor before joining the board of supervisors in Buena Vista County, Iowa, one of the first counties in the nation to have big wind projects.
Then Ihrke says that she heard about people in the county “having problems or having to leave their homes,” which led her to desire more strict zoning regulations in Ford County.
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