PODCAST: Shoreline Property Owners Meet Great Lakes Wind Council
Click below to listen to the audio version of the story from Michigan NOW.
A state body recommending the rules for windmills on the Great Lakes met with the public on March 25 near Bay City. The legislature is starting to debate this issue. No other state has offshore wind yet and the race is on. The Granholm Administration considers offshore wind crucial to economic development. But people that own lakefront property have already organized against it. Michigan Now’s Chris McCarus reports.
The Great Lakes Offshore Wind Council was chosen by the governor. About 5 members of it did a presentation March 25 at Saginaw Valley State University. They’re biggest concern is convincing shoreline home owners that windmills on the water won’t be ugly. James Clift is a lobbyist for the Michigan Environmental Council. He’s also a member of the council.
“The bottom line is the state has to make this decision up front. Do we want to lease this parcel to a wind developer? So we want the best information possible when we’re trying to answer that question. If we see impediments to a wind farm going in we need the information for the state to say you know we think that site has so many problems that we don’t want you to look there any further.”
The council has a new mapping tool. It uses 22 criteria to narrow down the best places to set up windmills on the lakes. Here’s some of what they’re watching out for: shipwrecks, shipping lanes, recreational fish spawning, commercial fishing, bird and bat flyways, coastal airports, buoys and large river mouths. Mike Klepinger is a staff consultant to the council. He had the 80 people in the room vote with little hand held clickers.
“How do you think this project will affect aesthetics of the lake view? We’ve already asked you a little bit about aesthetics. Strongly benefit, benefit, no effect, harm, strongly harm or unsure.”
As the voting was tallied instantly, Klepinger found that most people are worried about how windmills would look on the lake.
“30% no effect. 25% strongly harm and 27% harm.”
This group spends many days of the year on the Great Lakes. They want to support offshore wind. They tend not to like coal, gas or nuclear plants. But they’re concerned about birds, bats, air quality and paying for electricity. It’s not clear what new sources of power they would approve of. Jeff Hoenle is from Sterling Heights. His family owns a vacation home near Pentwater. A Norwegian firm has proposed a wind farm on the lake near there. They would invest $4 billion. I asked Hoenle if he was a NIMBY…someone fighting a new project. Not in my backyard.
Hoenle is heading a property rights group called protectwithpower.org. They’ve poured in thousands of dollars. They’ve hired a Lansing lobbyist and lawyer to stop the project in their area. People on the other side of the issue say a whole new industry is at stake. From the towers, blades, gearboxes, transmission lines, even shipping. Will it be in Michigan or somewhere else?
Having just come back from trips all over northern Iowa, I have seen some of the effects and land uses that people should also consider. I don’t think a wind energy industry in Michigan would affect just lakefront property owners. It appeared to me that while a wind farm is going in, massive amounts of land and open space are required just to assemble all the gigantic parts of the windmills. I saw one location with acres upon acres of equipment and parts stored while awaiting installation. Where would these places be, and if by the shoreline, how temporary would these spaces be, and what are the environmental impacts of using such open spaces, if there even are any, for assembling wind farms? Transporting these humongous pieces of equipment along Michigan roadways also have economic and environmental costs and impacts. There is much more to assess and analyze in terms of the actual environmental footprint in the entire process than just what the finished product looks like from afar.
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Aesthetics? I have driven past wind farms before, here and other places including the State of Wyoming. I think they are very graceful looking, let alone the fact you know they are not doing harm to our envioronment. Lets see. I drive past the Muskegon BC Cobb plant every dayand have for over 50 years. Thank god I live up wind from it and only certain times of the year does it blow my way. Oh, and talk about the lovely view and the ash spread on the other side of the causeway, (albiet they have covered). And the birds? Oh my, how many square miles encompass this area? We have planes in the air every day! We need to have an alternative and a better one than nuclear and coal, they are good for a back-up. My concerns on this project are about the ice flow and will they hold in the lake and do we have enough wind to warrant their placement? I will be attending the session here in Muskegon.
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That must be a smart idea. I dream to dig more alternative energy. But sometimes we have to meet any unsupports opinion. That is about business, aesthetics, morality or whatever. But we will go ahead.
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I think you should check property value for shoreline real estate and put wind farms in areas that would least effect beachfront property value. You could put a wind farm behind the Manitou islands where no one could see them, but not in bays like Grand Traverse and Little Traverse Bay.
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