On resistance to green energy in small-town America

David Gelles reports today for the New York Times under the headline, "The U.S. Will Need Thousands of Wind Farms. Will Small Towns Go Along?"  The subhead is, "In the fight against climate change, national goals are facing local resistance.  One county scheduled 19 nights of meetings to debate one wind farm."  An excerpt follows: 

[W]hile [federal] policymakers may set lofty goals, the future of the American power grid is in fact being determined in town halls, county courthouses and community buildings across the country.

The only way Mr. Biden’s ambitious goals will be met is if rural communities, which have large tracts of land necessary for commercial wind and solar farms, can be persuaded to embrace renewable energy projects. Lots of them.

According to an analysis by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the United States would need to construct more than 6,000 projects like the Monticello one in order to run the economy on solar, wind, nuclear or other forms of nonpolluting energy.

In Piatt County, [Illinois] population 16,000, the project at issue is Goose Creek Wind, which has been proposed by Apex Clean Energy, a developer of wind and solar farms based in Virginia. Apex spent years negotiating leases with 151 local landowners and trying to win over the community, donating to the 4-H Club and a mental health center.

Now, it was making its case to the zoning board, which will send a recommendation to the county board that will make a final call on whether Apex can proceed. If completed, the turbines, each of them 610 feet tall, would march across 34,000 acres of farmland.

* * *  

In Piatt County, the zoning board decided to conduct a mock trial of sorts. During the first nine hearings, Apex and its witnesses made the case that property values would not decline and that other concerns about wind farms — that they are ugly, that they kill birds, or that the low frequency noise they emit can adversely affect human health — were not major issues.

Don't miss this entire story.  It's textured, with lots of interesting folks and a bit of misinformation thrown in, too.  

Here's a recent related story, from the Associated Press, about rural voters being leery of Biden on climate issues.