RENEW responds to Sen. Lasee's latest, meaningless anti-wind joust

Monday, July 16, 2012

In his latest anti-wind publicity stunt, State Senator Frank Lassee (R-De Pere) brought a few of his constituents to Madison to ask the PSC for relief from the supposed impact of the Shirley Wind Farm on their lives.

In response to Lasee on Madison's WKOW-TV, RENEW's Michael Vickerman said:

"Sen. Lasee has been waging an ideological war against wind power for a long time," said Michael Vickerman of the green energy group Renew Wisconsin.

Vickerman believes that is what is really behind Sen. Lasee's crusade, adding that no credible studies have found what the people from Shirley are claiming.

"The one prepared for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health specifically says 'we cannot find any foundation for a set of symptoms that is called Wind Turbine Syndrome,'" said Vickerman.

Additionally, Vickerman made the following rebuttals during the entire interview:

1. The Shirley project was approved five years ago by the Glenmore Town Board. The PSC had nothing to do with that project. The PSC has no jurisdiction over this facility. The statewide siting rule took effect after the Shirley project was placed in service. This is political grandstanding, pure and simple.

2. Sen. Frank Lasee has been conducting an ideologically driven war against windpower for years. Supporters of his anti-wind crusade include the WI Realtors Association (WRA) and several wealthy landowners living in Brown and Calumet County.

3. The adverse health effects claimed by Sen. Lasee were scrutinized by a group of independent health experts under the aegis of the Massachusetts Dept. of Public Health. The experts concluded that there is no scientific basis for concluding that wind generation impairs public health.

4. There is absolutely zero evidence substantiating WRA’s contention that wind generation has reduced property values in Wisconsin.

5. Sen. Lasee has two other wind projects in his district, both in Kewaunee County. These two installations, placed in service in 1999 and totaling 31 turbines, are the oldest continuously operating windpower projects in the state. No one in Kewaunee County has reported any kind of health effects from these turbines. Yet Sen. Lasee refuses to acknowledge that fact. Nor does he acknowledge the degree of community acceptance there that has evolved over the projects' 13 year-lives.

6. I characterized the wind opposition as a small but vocal minority that either does not exist in neighboring states or is less well organized there.

7. Lasee’s tireless advocacy on behalf of forces opposed to windpower has caused nationally prominent wind developers to leave the state in search of greener pastures.