Generating lots of controversy

Don Quixote, the famous would-be knight in Miguel de Cervantes’s novel of the same name, once mistook a windmill for a giant and attacked it, doing more damage to himself than the windmill.

Today, windmills are giant high-technology businesses and, judging by the press coverage from places like Clayton and Cape Vincent, knights are still tilting at them with mixed results.

I wrote a column about wind farms two years ago, but no one seemed to notice. Somehow, I expect that to change this time around.

First, a fair disclaimer. My wife’s maiden name is Mason, and I am in some obscure way related by marriage to the Masons and Aubertines of Cape Vincent, who recently appeared in an advertisement in this paper.

To get the exact details of the family relationship, you need to talk to her, as I don’t even pretend to understand it.

I don’t know anyone personally who has a wind contract and I don’t have any money invested in wind power. Given today’s investment environment, I don’t think I have any money left invested in anything.

I don’t want to go through the national policy arguments for or against wind farms here. I have spent quite a bit of time now immersed in the literature on the subject and don’t think there are enough column inches in this entire newspaper to address the issues in useful detail.

As with “The X-Files,” the truth is out there, but it might be easier to track down UFOs than reach a definitive understanding of the real environmental and economic impact of wind farming. I am including a set of pro and con Web sites, however, in case you would like to try. I encourage you to do so.

Thanks to some lengthy exchanges with one very patient wind-farming opponent, I have become convinced that some of the economic and environmental claims of the national wind farm lobby may deserve more skeptical inspections.

Because wind-farming is heavily subsidized by the state and the federal government, it is your money that is at stake and you might well want to take some time to read further on the subject.

My real audience for this column, however, is not on either side of the national policy debate on wind-farming and renewable energy.

I am writing for the honest and well-intentioned member of a local town council or zoning board who has to make decisions about proposed or possible wind farms in his or her district. Joe the councilman, if you will, elected by his peers and faced with complex issues.

Joe (or Josephina) has or will eventually have a set of well-funded developers on one hand and some angry local citizens and activists on the other, each making strong arguments about the value and risks of wind power.

What to do?

First, Joe, I suggest you set aside most of the national arguments for or against wind power. Wind turbines may or may not deliver on their promise of reduced carbon dioxide emissions, and the electricity they generate may or may not be worth the unsubsidized cost to produce it.

None of those issues will be affected in any meaningful way by one more or less wind farm in your township.

If wind turbines do not significantly reduce carbon dioxide produced in the United States, then your town and everyone else on the planet will be in exactly the same CO2 situation before and after the wind farm is built.

The value and price of the electricity aren’t your issues, as you won’t be buying or selling it. Stay focused on what matters to you and your constituents here and now.

The most important local issues are typically worries about reduced property values, health concerns about noise and something called the flicker effect, and the death of migrating bats and birds. Along with these is the fact that many people find wind turbines ugly and don’t want to live near them.

Unfortunately, for opponents of wind farms, there is almost no real evidence that shows any effect on property values or the health of neighbors near wind farms, and the bird/bat issue is very site-specific.

Of course, there is ample evidence that people hate wind farms, regardless of what can or cannot be proven. Just because something is a NIMBY (not in my backyard) issue that affects only a few people does not mean it is trivial.

Those are your voters, Joe, and probably also friends and neighbors.

Regional economic development agencies see wind farms and other renewable-energy projects as economic alternatives to the factories and farms that we have been losing so steadily for so long.

The local economic benefits of wind farms are real and include new municipal tax revenue streams, additional income for some landowners and a few jobs created, especially during the construction phase.

The money these projects bring to your community could be very helpful to many people, and there are no other comparable alternatives on the horizon at the moment.

We have been asking for new development and here it is. The trick is to extract the most value from it, as the costs will be very real.

Fortunately, Joe, you are not alone in receiving wind mill propositions. The Jefferson County Job Development Agency is in the final stages of developing a uniform tax exemption policy (UTEP) designed to serve as a model for townships in negotiating with wind developers.

The idea is to get as much from them in tax payments as you possibly can without driving them away.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation recently completed guidelines for developers on doing bird/bat impact studies, so you should be able to have the developer do a standard study to address this issue head on.

Now we need the economic development community to fund a regional survey of attitudes and opinions on wind farms so elected officials can see the desires of their constituents and developers can see where they are likely to be welcome or unwelcome.

We also need more regional assistance from agencies like the Development Authority of the North Country or the Tug Hill Commission on issues like economic impact, noise and transmission lines. These are regional issues, even if we seem to be fighting them out one town or village at a time.

Wind turbines are coming, and we all will have to make some decisions about the benefits and the costs. Because those benefits and costs are not spread evenly across the landscape, the choices will be complex and emotional.

Joe, the time to start planning is now — before a wind developer shows up and puts money on the table.

Once that happens, interests will emerge, and it will be many times harder to arrive at a consensus. Think of the arrival of Walmart in your community, if Walmart were 400 feet high.

If you have strong opinions about our national policies on wind power, then share them with your state and federal elected representatives and, by all means, blog away.

If you have strong opinions about wind farms in your community, however, call your local representatives and suggest some community forums and planning before a developer shows up.

In the battle between knights and windmills, victory is never certain, but some advance planning never hurts.

Gregory A. Gardner is an assistant professor of business at SUNY Potsdam.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE PROS AND CONS OF WIND FARMS

WEB SITES SUPPORTING WIND POWER:

■ www.awea.org — this is the site of the American Wind Energy Alliance, the primary lobby for wind power in the United States. It is the home for anything that supports wind power in any form.

■ www.windpower-monthly.com — an online magazine that provides general positive coverage of the wind energy issue.

■ www1.eere.energy.gov/windandhydro — this is a U.S. Department of Energy site that covers renewable-energy subjects, including wind power.

■ www.powerofwind.com — another AWEA site.

WEB SITES OPPOSING WIND POWER

■ http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2008/05/07/spin-this-booming-wind-industry-still-seeks-subsidies — a Wall Street Journal blog on environmental issues, including this piece on wind power subsidies.

■ www.wind-watch.org — an anti-wind-power activist site with national coverage.

■ www.windaction.org — an anti-wind-power activist site with a good selection of opinion pieces.

■ www.windpowerfacts.info — a site put up by a Northern New York activist. It includes some writings on national issues as well as a public relations guideline for outmaneuvering local town boards and wind farm developers.