A film I reviewed August 7 started out with homage to wind
power as a boon to ranchers, but there is a little documentary called "Windfall" (2010) by Laura Israel, which shows that in more populated rural areas, as in
the northeast, it can become a real problem for landowners.
The setting is Meredith, NY, in Delaware County, SW of the
Catskills, maybe 40 miles from the NE corner of PA. Windmill companies approach landowners and
make them sign confidentiality agreements not to discuss potential
income-generating income land leases with anyone (even privately, let alone on
the Internet), so they can’t organize resistance or demand more money. Eventually, the townspeople overcome this barrier and get organized, although they have to deal with their own interpersonal squabbles and "conflicts of interest" first/
The film points out that some of the surrounding area did
not even have electricity until just after WWII, and the area is well prepared
with self-sufficient (probably armed) people who could survive a power grid
failure (hint, a warning about a solar storm or even an EMP attack).
Now, though, the wind turbines, once installed, cause real
distractions: “shadow flicker” on sunny days is distracting to some people, and
the turbines interfere with television reception and probably wireless
Internet, although those problems could probably be managed by carefully
placing all the turbines with respect to the positions of cell phone and
broadcast towers. The whish sound from
the turbines is also disturbing in some homes.
In the film, the turbines (400 feet to the top of the tallest blade)
seem close to some farm houses.
It is common to see wind farms on the tops of ridges in the
northeast, especially Pennylvania, and it’s necessary to dig about 30 feet into
the ridge to place a cement floor – so this is “minor” mountaintop
removal. It’s a lot less destructive
than strip mining for coal.
The film asks the question whether wind farming is
superfluous, and whether the real strategy for clean energy should focus just
on natural gas.
The official site (Cat Hollow Films) is here.
The DVD and Instant play are available on Netflix.
Picture: Mine, near Mt. Storm, W Va, 2010.
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