Remember back in 2013 when Jared Polis sued to stop drilling for natural gas on property next to his weekend getaway in Weld County because it was loud, smelly, and annoyed him?
Polis was a congressman at the time. He dropped the lawsuit a few weeks later after getting all the headlines and media attention he desired.
But he later filed a complaint with the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission claiming the fracking well “created an uninhabitable atmosphere, substantially and unreasonably interfering with the occupancy of my property.”
While driving … somewhere … Polis takes a selfie of his bloody nose he claims was caused by fracking.
We were reminded of Polis’s objection to natural gas production and his insistence on other means of energy development, like the wind turbines that now litter the landscape along the Eastern Plains, while reading this special report by the Colorado Sun.
What a nightmare these wind turbines have created for nearby residents, even the ones who tried to cash in on the trend by leasing their land for the gigantic structures.
Just one among many in the report, Carol and Jon Schweiger’s compelling story illustrates the bizarre intrusiveness of a turbine that causes a strobe light effect through the windows of their house.
It’s so obnoxious, seizure warnings should come with the videos on the Colorado Sun’s website.
From the report:
Today, earplugs, a fan in the bedroom and a tinkling water fountain outside obscure the whooshing noise of rotating blades. Blackout curtains hide the picturesque view and block the flashes of shadow and light early in the morning, when turbine blades pass the sun. Even with the curtains closed, the pulses of light leak through.
The turbines are not carbon free and can take as long as six years to pay back the energy of producing one. It’s not clear how long the towering structures are expected to produce energy. Maybe 25 years, the report suggests.
And what happens when the structure collapses or is no longer usable?
It’s unclear who’s responsible for that as well.
One landowner who appears to regret his decision to lease his land for $1,000 a year per turbine has regrets and fears the company “won’t be as eager to decommission the towers as they were to put them up,” the Sun reports.
Thanks to the Biden administration, there are now more incentives for wind turbine companies to quickly expand their footprints in Colorado and other states.
The growth of renewable energy is expected to increase as Xcel Energy builds a $1.7 billion transmission project connecting solar and wind energy generated in rural Colorado to the more populous Front Range. The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act pumped $369 billion into energy and climate change initiatives, an investment expected to further boost the industry.
But the renewable energy push brings with it concerns that dogged fossil fuels, including a fear that turbines will be abandoned on landowners’ properties.
Check out the full report here. It’s a real eye-opener.
As wind farms flood the Eastern Plains, the renewable energy alternative is now running into the same concerns that originally plagued the fossil fuel industry.https://t.co/zDtYdVO5vl
— The Colorado Sun (@ColoradoSun) October 24, 2022