New Video in Two Parts: The War on Farmers and Clean Energy
February 27, 2023
Part 1 here. I am trying to elevate the voices of farmers I spoke to in Montcalm County, Michigan – their experience is shared by others across the country. Keeping our farms and farm communities intact against encroaching sprawl means giving farmer the means to diversify their income.
City folks who (rightly) are asking for more clean, climate safe energy, need to know that none of their righteous “100 percent renewable” pledges can play out unless farmers, and the small town officials who represent them, get some support.
Two years ago, Illinois had adopted a landmark clean energy law that called for building vast amounts of renewable power. At the same time, 15 counties with some of the most land available for wind and solar had passed, or were about to pass, restrictions on new development that made the state’s goals more difficult to reach.
Something had to give.
That something came last month, when Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a bill that took away the ability of local governments to limit or ban wind and solar power, a measure that follows similar actions in California and New York.
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Sarah King, a Northern Illinois University law professor, said there is a growing awareness that local control of development can be harmful if the result is a shutdown in new construction due to pressure from local residents.
“It has become so clear that if we are serious about decarbonization, then the scale on which we need to be adopting renewable energy is vast,” she said.
Her legal work includes representing property owners in Piatt County, located in central Illinois, who have leased their property for Goose Creek Wind Farm, a 300-megawatt proposal. County officials in January approved a moratorium on wind farm applications, but that doesn’t include the application for Goose Creek, which is still pending.
King said the existential threat of climate change means that the regulatory system needs to err on the side of allowing renewable energy development, even if that means reducing local control.
Below – farmers weigh in on need for state level regulation on clean energy.
Tomorrow – the bizarre “cult” aimed at stopping clean energy across the midwest.
Imagine bursting into tears because someone put up a windmill on his own land. The sound advice of “Get a Life” is so far back down the sorry path this person has trod. That so many Americans are in this condition, rejecting their masks and vaccines, popping their hydroxychloroquine, waiting for ‘Q’ to identify the Anti-Christ, is truly something worth weeping over.
Deplorable people doing deplorable things in an organized (possibly by dark money?) way is another example of why trying to let the ‘free’ market solve AGW is not likely to work fast enough.
Decarbonizing the electrical sector might require Federal executive action. We should be expanding the Overton window by talking seriously about the nationalization of the electricity sector. It is already heavily publicly owned.
At least give the Dept. of Energy a new mandate to expeditiously build the RE infrastructure we need and use eminent domain to get ‘er done. You know, sorta like a lot of countries are already doing.
Climate Denial Crock of the Week 
February 28, 2023 at 12:23 am
Imagine bursting into tears because someone put up a windmill on his own land. The sound advice of “Get a Life” is so far back down the sorry path this person has trod. That so many Americans are in this condition, rejecting their masks and vaccines, popping their hydroxychloroquine, waiting for ‘Q’ to identify the Anti-Christ, is truly something worth weeping over.
February 28, 2023 at 2:45 pm
Deplorable people doing deplorable things in an organized (possibly by dark money?) way is another example of why trying to let the ‘free’ market solve AGW is not likely to work fast enough.
Decarbonizing the electrical sector might require Federal executive action. We should be expanding the Overton window by talking seriously about the nationalization of the electricity sector. It is already heavily publicly owned.
At least give the Dept. of Energy a new mandate to expeditiously build the RE infrastructure we need and use eminent domain to get ‘er done. You know, sorta like a lot of countries are already doing.