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Dear Editor,
Thank you to those that attended the Marklein Listening Sessions the past few weeks. I attended several of them and spoke at each regarding the Industrial Wind Turbines (IWT). We need to keep the pressure on our legislators to keep our area safe from IWTs.
Numerous people spoke at each session against the IWT projects in our area. It is nice that these legislators take the time to listen to their constituents, but we need to keep talking to them and let them know where we stand. If you don't want to see our area overrun by IWTs, you need to help us and speak up.
Write to your legislators and even our governor, Tony Evers, as he is the one pushing green energy. These projects should all be put on hold until the Wind Siting Council produces their report. Many of these new IWTs are going to be twice as tall as the existing ones in Montfort. Iowa County does not need hundreds of IWTs.
The public needs to speak up and let your voices be heard. At the meeting in Cobb, everyone in attendance was invited to speak. Some people that spoke were very emotional regarding the IWTs. One spoke saying they would have to move away and another said they were surrounded as their neighbors had all signed up. There was even two representatives from Pattern Energy, Grace Lacke and Bradley Allen there but alas they declined to speak and left immediately after the meeting. It would have been nice if they would have spoken about the project and stayed around afterwards to answer questions. Pattern Energy representatives continue to evade answering questions whether its in person or on their Facebook page.
I was able to briefly talk to Grace from Pattern at the Darlington listening session as I have been trying to contact Phillip Ross, project manager. Grace did tell me that Phillip left the company and now someone else will be taking over as project manager. I had invited Phillip to my farm several times so we could talk but he ignored my invitation. Pattern Energy needs to answer the questions that the public has regarding this project.
The public deserves answers. We want to see the results of Pattern's studies regarding birds and bats. We want to see independent studies on the effects of infrasound and shadow flicker. We want to see the environmental studies that they have done for this project and for previous projects. A moratorium needs to happen to stop these projects until more research is done on the effects. Information on IWTs and wind projects can be found on TheLongViewAllianceWI.org.
Thank you again to everyone that attended the listening sessions, together we can make a difference
Steve Ferrell
Iowa County Landowner
Monroe, WI