Industrial wind turbines don’t seem to fit with Orleans County’s rural ambiance

Editor:

Cathi Orr’s recent letter concerning the perilous potential reality of so-called “mechanics’ liens” being filed against landowners who engage with huge companies to install 570-foot industrial wind turbines ought to be taken seriously. It is not that uncommon for contractors, in general, to be stiffed for work they do for the massive companies they sometimes do business with.

A few years ago, I suggested that industrial wind turbines were/are not well-suited to Orleans County for a variety of reasons, including the county’s population density, pleasant rural ambiance, and environmental appeal. The lakeshore is one of many vistas that might very well suffer adverse impacts from structures three times as high as the Presbyterian Church steeple in Albion.

At that time I pointed out that Roscoe, Texas is like a moonscape littered with abandoned oil rigs and precious few people. There is nothing going on there to “mess up.” It is no doubt a suitable location for wind turbines. I would put some abandoned industrial steel mill sites in the same category.

Orleans County has many things that can be harmed by rushing to make the same mistakes others have already made.

Sincerely yours,

Gary Kent
Albion