The Answer Isn't Always Blowin' in the Wind

About 80 miles from Chicago, along a stretch of I-65 in northern Indiana, hundreds of wind turbines turn in unison, creating an alternative energy source that has been touted by many as the wave of the future. The wind farm is a sight to behold, with its 400-foot, gleaming white turbines laid out across the land in a pattern. Driving through the spinning windmills has a calming effect on me, dissipating stress and relieving boredom. After watching Laura Israel’s excellent documentary Windfall, I confess that I am still fascinated by their man-made beauty, even as I am leery of the wind industry’s image as “the good energy.”


Windfall tells the story of what happened in Israel’s town of Meredith, New York, when an energy company from Ireland stealthily invades the town hoping to establish a wind project on local farms and pasture lands like one in nearby Tug Hill. At first eager to embrace the new energy source, and mindful of the money that it would bring to the community, some residents are enthusiastic. As might be expected, no one told them of the negative effect of the turbines. The turbines kill thousands of birds, while the constant noise, strobing effect, and mysterious fields of energy produced by the monoliths have caused death and destruction to farm animals. For humans, the monotonous noise of the propellers and the strobing effect when the blades catch the sun can cause daily migraines and nausea, while the threat of ice hurled by the blades make them a danger in the winter months.

In addition, the turbines can overheat from the constant turning and catch on fire, causing the propeller to fall apart.  Because the fire is 400 feet straight up, local fire departments are not equipped to put the fire out. In the film, when one of the turbines catches fire, men watch helplessly as foul-smelling smoke blackens the air, and huge pieces of hot metal drop to the ground.

My family is from West Virginia, where energy companies have been raping the state, lining the pockets of politicians, and exploiting residents for 100 years. First, it was the coal companies, which still skirt state and federal environmental laws with the skill of the best con men, and then it was the oil and gas companies. Now, the gas companies have returned to extract more gas via fracking. You would think that people would learn, but, like the residents Meredith, representatives of energy companies have a fool-proof strategy to get what they want. First a few large landowners whose families have been in the area for generations are approached to sign up. Then, town supervisors and members of the town planning board, who may be landowners themselves, are targeted. Those who are approached, even if they decline the company’s offers, have to sign a confidentiality agreement that prevents them from telling their neighbors what is coming. When the news does get out, there is an implication of inevitability, because the company has already signed so many participants, leaving other residents to think that there is nothing they can do about it. When I was a kid, and the natural gas companies were preying on northern West Virginia, they even threatened to use the right of eminent domain on old-timers who refused to jump on the bandwagon.

In Meredith, the wind proposal split the town into two factions, pitting neighbor against neighbor and upsetting the social fabric of the community. Of course, the wind developers assured the residents they would take care of ruined turbines, return the land to its natural state when the project was decommissioned, etc., etc., but those promises sound an awful lot like those made by the  coal, gas, and oil companies in West Virginia. If you believe any energy company will do what they promise after they have gotten what they wanted, then I have some oily farmland with ruined well water to sell you in West Virginia.

Windfall tells a good story about decent people in a tragic predicament, and, in the process, raises a lot of questions: Just how good is the “good energy?” Should wind farms be controlled by mammoth energy companies, or by communities that can control the placement and number of turbines? In Bill Haney’s film The Last Mountain, Robert Kennedy Jr. advocates wind energy as a safe alternative to coal mining via mountain-top removal, which has devastated southern West Virginia. Do we pick the energy source that is least harmful? And, whose word do we take on which energy is the safest?

The wind farm along I-65 in northern Indiana. The issue is closer than you think.

Given the proximity of the enormous Indiana wind farm to Chicago, I thought Windfall would draw a lot of viewers. Apparently, I was wrong as attendance for this film has not met expectations. It seems everyone likes to talk about alternative energy sources, but no one wants to do anything about them—not even making an effort to understand the downside of a “good energy.” Just remember that being “green” is about more than patting yourself on the back for buying those CFL light bulbs. –Susan Doll