The following post features Bill Myers’ talk from the recent Save the Palouse community meeting.
Wind power is not cheap. Ask any sailor. Wind is harnessed at great effort and expense. Wind power down through the millennia has been abandoned at earliest convenience. It’s only recently found a resurgence due to the huge influx of government subsidies. The wind mill and the wind driven ship have all taken their place on the ash heap of technology. No serious shipping company would consider wind.
Why are we talking about ships? A wind turbine blade is a huge fiberglass, carbon fiber sail. It operates by Bernoulli’s principle. High pressure seeks to replace low pressure just like the wing of a bird. Just like the wing of an airplane. The Wright Brothers watched birds.
At the end of each wind turbine blade a miniature tornado is generated. The force of that tornado is equal to the displacement of the object creating it. In the case of an airplane, the wing tip vortices are equal to the weight of the airplane.This is called wake turbulence. You cannot see it. It is real. Student pilots are taught to avoid it like the plague. You cannot see these forces. How do you avoid something you cannot see? You give it time and space. Wing tip vortices extend behind and below the aircraft generating them. They eventually dissipate, and the air becomes calm again. It’s just like the wake of a boat. You can turn in a big circle and go right back through your own wake. You can feel it. Given time the wake goes away. Many times you are advised by Air Traffic Control, “Cation, Wake Turbulence”. It is not the controller who is responsible. It is you.
Your wind farm is a lot like a dam. A big leaky air dam. Air piles up in front on them and turbulence is generated behind them. Wind turbines are a continuous micro weather event. Birds instinctively sense this. Thats why wind turbines kill so many birds. The birds are seeking lift. They find the lift. They ride that lift to its source.
An Ag Pilot is not a bird, although he might think he is. He has a bigger brain.
That bigger brain has its own problems. It has a business to run. It has a family to feed. If you sign a Wind contract, that brain will have highly variable capricious invisible turbulence to deal with, not to mention the 700 foot tall gifts from Big Wind. Just like the bird, there is a lure. It is the previously available land around the wind farm. It’s not just the area of the wind farm, but its influence on the air in front of and behind it. It affects its neighbors. To be sure, it is the pilots responsibility to avoid these forces. He will weigh out the benefits and the costs. If the cost is his life, he will choose not to service your wind farm and the neighbor’s farms around it.
I’m not disputing the power of wind. I am disputing our ability to harness it. Can you grasp the wind? Not with any degree of efficiency. Subsidies do not generate innovation, subsidies do not generate electricity. subsidies generate dependency.
Most of the individually owned wind generators you’ve seen around the country aren’t functioning. They were installed with a tax credit. When they broke down, no one fixed them. It didn’t pay to repair them so these little pinwheels remain limp in the wind that was intended to drive them. No one has bothered to take them down. It’s just a matter of scale. What makes you think it will be any different with the 700 foot tall edition? The promise of a long absent corporation? The words of a wind company representative? A county commissioner who will retire before the 30 years is up? It takes money to make wind work. Lots of money. Your money.
Farmers are in the carbon offset business. It always has been, and it always will be that way. We remove CO2 from the air and produce oxygen in its place while providing food for the world. It takes carbon and money to do this. The more you input, the more you produce. It’s a giant engine. There are limits. There is a balance. Anyone can do it, but we have become specialists. When outside forces limit those inputs, the output suffers. When the output suffers, prices go up and you suffer. Commodity prices are at all time lows. The prices on the shelf are at all time highs.
Things are little tough down on the farm. That’s why Harvest Hills is riding to our rescue. You’ve heard the ads. You’ll farm the Wind. I’m so glad that agriculture in the Palouse will finally be protected for future generations. It obvious that our legacy is their concern. They will place us in the care of foreign corporations that know what we need, and when we need it. They have teamed up with our own government to insure our bright future. Big foreign corporations and big government. They know what’s best.
Farming is a complicated business. It needs to be simplified for us. We worry too much. Chemical and fertilizer application can be made much simpler and easier. The answer is to place 700 foot tall monuments to seventh century technology on our highest hills for all to see and enjoy. Surely the people we hire to apply our necessary inputs will be able to see and avoid these colossal engineering marvels. The topography of the Palouse will dictate a random pattern of placement for these 95 Federally permitted edifices to our new way of life. You can be sure they won’t be placed in orderly rows. Their placement will writhe and undulate with the Palouse landscape following your highest ridges. They will challenge and amuse even the best ag pilot. It will be a small sacrifice if our acres will be impossible for them to service. Getting killed is not part of the bargain.
You’ll just spray that fungicide and foliar feed those fields yourself. You don’t need those guys. You have a new 120 foot sprayer with all the bells and whistles. What’s a few extra wheel tracks. Besides, that’s nothing compared to all those roads that will meander through your fields. It’s too bad you can’t use those roads. Those roads aren’t for you. Those roads are for serving the giant ag plane grinders. I’m sure that’s all been weighed out by those who hold the reins of your destiny. We can all rest assured, Big Wind knows what’s best.
What? You didn’t sign with Happy Hills Wind? You pathetic loser. No problem. You’ll get some of the same benefits. Harvest Hills can place their planet savers right up to your property line. The County Commissioners and the County planners, with the help of Wind Developers made sure of that. They wrote a generous wind Development Code that allows for setbacks to apply to dwellings only. Your property is important to Harvest Hills. Even if you didn’t help Big Wind, they’re going to help you. Your possibility of getting aerial application just got cut in half! The result is increased cost of production and lack of timely application of what your crops need. As these projects proliferate throughout our County and State, crop care by air will become rare. It’s a Wind Win. Everybody Winds.
And what about all that new precision ag stuff you bought to help reduce chemical use and erosion? How well is it going to work on all those little pieces left over by your new maintenance roads. It’s hard to get a good A B line going on a 15 acre three corner piece. You might have to break out your old 70 foot sprayer to pick up those little scabs. Park that new 120 foot machine. So much for all that. Just think of all those extra corners you’ll get to make because your nice big fields just got cut up by the turbine maintenance roads that YOU won’t be able to farm. That probably won’t cost you any more than 25% in application cost and product overruns. Besides, timely fertilizer application and weed control are highly overrated anyway. You’ll be better off without all that. You’re farming the wind now. Those decreased yields and weedy fields will hardly be noticed when you cash your check from Big Brother Wind.
They’ll be watching, and they’re here to help us all.
You and your friends want to go hunting? Oh, you forgot. You don’t have any friends, and you can’t hunt on a wind farm. Your contract says you can’t. A stray round could damage your new carbon killers. You’ll have to find somewhere else to hunt, IF your neighbors are still willing to talk to you.
Be careful not to damage one of your new toys in any way. The damages might just put you out of business. Those power poles count too. You don’t get extra points for hitting those either. You’ve got a whole new set of liabilities. Better talk to your insurance company. There might be some underground stuff you need to consider as well. They can’t write those big numbers? Too bad.
Speaking of not talking. The family won’t be coming out for that annual reunion anymore because of the arguments you all got into about the great deal you got. After all, you did it for them. It seems that half of them didn’t like the idea. Think of the time and effort you will save. They always want to come out to the farm when you are the most busy anyway. Besides, Happy Harvest Hills is your new family, until they sell your lease to another company in a couple of years. I’m sure the new company will be just as nice as the friendly folks that signed you up for this new life. It’s just too bad that you didn’t get as good a deal as the guy down the road. He held out for more money. How could you know? No body is supposed to be talking about it anyway. It says so in your contact. Your contract has a non disclosure clause. You wouldn’t want to upset your new friends at Harvest Hills. You wouldn’t want them to sue you.
Your sorehead loser neighbor might sue you because because of all the money you cost him. His damages are real. What a loser. He could have gotten in on the deal too. You went around trying to talk all of them into it. Sort of like AmWay. Not many takers. Not everyone has your vision. What a bunch of pathetic Losers!
Speaking of getting sued, that Ag Pilots widow sure had a burr under her blanket. Or, one of your turbines might fail during a severe wind event and catch half the county on fire. They can do that you know. You’ll be totally dependent on your new star renter to make good on all those claims. Those insurance companies AREN’T going to want to pay. Those insurance companies will come after somebody. Hopefully your new Wind Friends have good insurance.
The fire department can’t do much with a 700 foot tall whirling fiberglass wheel of fire fueled by burning hydraulic oil. Could Palouse look like Malden after Labor Day 2020? Could Kamiak Butte be reduced to a 3641 foot heap of ashes. Definitely not. That won’t happen. Harvest Hills says it can’t. Never mind that a wind turbine caught fire near Oaksdale a few years ago. That’s ok. The fan of blazing death burned out on its own. The fire guys still talk about the that. There wasn’t much else they could do. It’s a good thing they didn’t have to call airplanes in to fight the fire. Wind turbines are a nightmare to fly around. It’s a good thing Life Flight didn’t have to respond. What if someone got hurt? It’s a good thing that happened in November. It’s a good thing this isn’t ever going to happen. Harvest Hills says so.
Harvest Hills says they will totally restore your land after your turbines wear out. After all, those are on your land. Oh, you keep forgetting. Harvest Hills won’t be around. They sold out and took their money with them after a couple of years . The Wind Works at Oakesdale is on its third owner. Take it easy you don’t have anything to say about it anyway. I wonder who will be holding the bond that is supposed to guarantee your land will be restored. 30 years from now, who knows.
Those roads that run every ridge on the place. They say they’re going dig those up and haul off the rock. I hope they get all that rock. I hope they get all the base rock too. Well, they can’t get it all. It would be unreasonable of you to assume that. Those roads are probably better than the county road you drive home on. They have to be to float all that heavy equipment across your Palouse topsoil. I hope they don’t default on you and those roads have to stay on your land. Look on the bright side. At least you’ll be able to use them now if you want. They don’t go anywhere. They just terminate at a 500 cubic yard permanent monument to your lack of forethought. You’ll just have to farm around them. Of course, you’re used to it by now. Oh, and those 500 cubic yards of concrete and steel that will never be removed? They promised they’d cover them up with four feet of dirt. These huge heat sinks will affect the growth of every thing planted on or around them. Not much will want to grow there except China Lettuce and Russian Thistles. They’ll be a constant reminder of your decision to sign. They’ll bring back fond memories of the time you signed with Harvest Hills.
Just think, when company number 5 defaults on your clean up, you can go in the wind turbine salvage business. After all, those are yours now, right? You are resourceful. You can probably figure out how to get them on the ground, if they aren’t already. You could cut up the steel towers up and haul them to Lewiston yourself. If the price of scrap iron is high enough you might break even. Who knows what’s in the turbine part? Not many people do. It’s sort of a mystery. You know there’s lots of oil in them. You’ve been watching it leak for years. You can use that oil heat your shop! I’ll bet the meth heads would figure out what to do with the copper. The fiberglass blades are a problem though. Harvest Hills said they are recyclable but nobody wants them. By now that pile of blades down by the airport at Walla Walla is a super fund site. They don’t want any more. You’ll probably have to store those yourself. Somewhere out of your way. Let’s see, 150 feet long times 3 times 5, that’s 2250 feet of wind turbine blades. That’s almost a half mile! No matter, you’ll figure something out. Maybe along the fence line down by your nonparticipating neighbors place. Loser. Serves him right. Mmmm, gives you an idea! The southern border!
Besides, by then you’re probably not the one doing the farming anyway.
The average wind signee is retired and leasing out his land, most won’t even live on these farms. They are absentee landlords living miles away from the Wonders of Wind. They won’t get to hear these whispering giants. They won’t get to see their climate crusaders cast those repetitive shadows by day and shine those blinking red lights by night. Although, if you live inside a 50 mile radius of Kamiak Butte you’ll certainly have a chance to see those lights any time you can see a Palouse horizon.
Oh, yes, the whispering, the incessant whispering. The whispering that that literally penetrates the marrow of your bones. Not real? You’ll have a hard time convincing the people you’ve made sick it’s not real. You’ll have an even harder time convincing their lawyers. Harvest Hills said infrasound wasn’t a big deal. Maybe it wasn’t to them, but as time passes, the evidence mounts.
You legacy? Aren’t you proud? Because of your participation in Harvest Hills, other land blemishing projects just kept coming in anywhere there was a decent power line. The Government kept pouring in dirty green money until one day it just ran out. The smaller farmers went broke. Foreign Corporations came in and bought the land. The county tax base crashed. The landscape is ruined. The schools are a joke. People moved away. I guess we’ll just own nothing and be happy. I guess that was the plan all along.
You don’t need to be concerned. You’ll probably be dead before your lease is up anyway. What about those that come after you?
Those Pathetic Losers. Let them figure it out.
There is a thing I like to call Palouse Privilege. It’s real. There IS no better place. We have been PRIVILEGED to live in the best place on earth at the best time in history. We live in unparalleled prosperity. Prosperity measured in beauty and purpose. Our prosperity is the beauty of the Palouse and our purpose is feeding the world. Our place on Palouse topsoil brings in this bounty. Its beauty nourishes our spirits and those who we gladly share it with. Now there are those who don’t think that’s good enough. They have conspired to deceive their neighbors and have consented to give up their heritage.
My father traveled the world with PanAm and the Navy. He could have chosen to live anywhere he wanted. He always knew where he wanted to raise his family. There was never any doubt in his mind or heart as to where he wanted to finally rest. He is buried in our family cemetery on a hill that has never been plowed. I would not dig him up to plant a wind turbine.
- More Wind projects
- More Taxes
- More Costs
- Land devaluation
- Fewer farmers
- Compromised School funding
- Loss of local control
- No more Aerial Application
- No more open fields
- No more of why we live here
- No more Palouse
We have been given a sacred trust. To whom much is given, much is required. As land owners we lead the way forward for those who follow. If you doubt that just look at what a handful of people have done. They have put us all in this room together tonight. The concern is real. The ultimate value of our civilization is the land. The land feeds our bodies, renews our minds, and blesses our spirits.
I’ve always believed in private property rights. I also believe that with rights come responsibility. Just try and raise livestock inside Pullman city limits. You can’t have hogs in your backyard, and you shouldn’t inflict the unimaginable on an entire population. When offered one of these deal years ago my first thought was “my neighbors are going to crap”! The more I read, the more my responsibility became clear to me.
This is a Manhattan Island deal. Our County Government and 12 land owners are taking glass beads in exchange for our future. They have taken a front loaded deal that gives away thirty years of sovereignty and leaves us permanently damaged. Even if the wind turbines get removed we will be left with miles of roads that lead to huge monolithic concrete and steel heat sinks covered with a thin veneer of clay and weeds that will erode from our highest ridges leaving a colossal monument to avarice. It won’t stop until they run out of our money. The very least our County Commissioners owe us is a Moratorium on issuing any permits to the Wind Industry until new code is written to replace the current outdated law written with the assistance of the Wind Industry.
Much has been revealed since Naff ridge. The battle for Naff ridge was lost because of ignorance. Nobody knew what was going on. Many mistakes were made. Will the lessons be learned? There is much new knowledge about the lack of carbon offsets and the health risks of what we are about to allow on our most treasured lands.
We have learned that our tax revenues actually go down with the passage of time. Evidently a structure with a 500 cubic yard foundation is not considered real property in the code. Turbines will be deprecated as they throw our schools out of state programs. Land that will be converted to industrial use will still be taxed as open space. Each one of these 700 ft tall middle fingers to our children’s future comes at the price of our sovereignty, and dignity.
What motivates one to give up the sacred for that which is base?
Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things.
This loss of our most precious gift from God Himself will be in exchange for 30 pieces of dirty green silver. If I wanted my name to rot in infamy on the Palouse I could think of no better way than to sign a Wind Contract.
How about the rest of you? I’m not a farmer. I’m sure no Ag Pilot. It won’t effect me, will it?
Don’t be Pathetic Losers.
At least try to win. Demand a Moratorium. A Moratorium is not the final solution, but it will give those of us in this room time to collect our thoughts and make our voices heard. Harvest Hills could very well throw a fit and send the project to EFSEC.
EFSEC has a backlog and that may give the Palouse a stay of execution. The new Governor may just pardon us. He won’t be seeking a Biden Administration cabinet post like our current Governor . He will be seeking reelection. Call the Commissioners and demand a Moratorium. Perhaps our Commissioners have more to say about this than we think. They might be interested in reelection as well.
Any farmer knows, you reap what you sow. You sow the wind. You reap the whirlwind.
What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?
Subsidized minions are not in control of their own land. Whoever controls the land owns it. You just pay the taxes.
And those taxes will go up.
What an excellent article! I fear we are losing our battle and it hurts my soul
Thank you, Bill Meyers for an excellent comment on the convoluted rational behind the wind industry. Designed by government experts primarily interested in the continuation of their employment as “representatives” of the public.
I am one of those pathetic losers who will continue to decline to join in this madness to destroy one of the most outstanding, productive, beautiful landscapes in the world. To provide costly supposedly green power while discussing tearing out hydro electric already in place. All done to appease the residents of Seattle and other Urban areas using my own tax money paid to a foreign corporation by misguided officials forcing a Green agenda on citizens who are designated losers.